Panning across this star-forming region, dramatic dark towers of
cool gas and dust are seen rising above a glowing wall of gas.
The high-energy radiation blazing out from the hot, young stars
in NGC 3324 is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly
eroding it away. This image is a composite of data taken with
two of Hubble’s science instruments. Data taken with the
Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in 2006 isolated light emitted
by hydrogen. More recent data, taken in 2008 with the Wide Field
Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), isolated light emitted by sulfur and
oxygen gas. To create a color composite, the data from the
sulfur filter are represented by red, from the oxygen filter by
blue, and from the hydrogen filter by green.