A new image, taken by VLT Survey Telescope at European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile, gives us a detailed look at the drama surrounding Ara's region, according to a press release from ESO.

The open star cluster NGC 6193 is the heart of the Ara OB1 association with thirty bright stars, two of which are very hot giants. The giant stars illuminate the neigboring emission nebulae, the Rim Nebula, also known as NGC 6188 (visible to the right of the bright center).

"A stellar association is a large grouping of loosely bound stars that have not yet completely drifted away from their initial formation site," according to the press release. "OB associations consist largely of very young blue-white stars, which are about 100,000 times brighter than the Sun and between 10 and 50 times more massive."

The Rim Nebula appears as a dark wall with bright clouds, forming a border between RCW 108 (the active star-forming region) and the rest of the association. Since the main necessity for star formation is hydrogen, areas like the area around RCW 108 are also called H II regions.

Because winds and radiation from previous stars and supernova explosions erode the cloud, H II regions have a lifespan of a short few million years. "Star formation is a very inefficient process, with only around 10% of the available material contributing to the process -- the rest is blown off into space," according to the press release.

The Rim Nebula seems to be in the early stages of "pillar formation," which is the formation of other star-forming areas, like the Eagle Nebula, Messier 16's Pillars of Creation and the Cone Nebula.

"This single spectacular image was actually created from more than 500 individual pictures taken through four different color filters with the VLT Survey Telescope," according to the press release. "The total exposure time was more than 56 hours. It is the most detailed view of this region yet achieved."