NASA. This photograph shows what astronomers call a "snake" - Lot 190

NASA. This photograph shows what astronomers call a "snake" (top left) and the stormy environment that surrounds it. This sinuous object is in fact the heart of a thick, sooty cloud, large enough to engulf dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers claim that the "belly of the snake" could be home to beastly stars in the process of forming. The galactic crawl to the right of the snake is another thick cloudy core, in which other massive stars in the process of being born may be hiding. The colored regions below the two cloud cores are less dense clouds, in which the dust has been heated by starlight and glows in the infrared. The yellow and orange dots in the image represent monstrous stars in development; the red star on the snake's "belly" is 20 to 50 times more massive than our sun. The blue dots are foreground stars. The red ball at bottom left is a "supernova remnant", i.e. the remains of a massive star that died in a fiery explosion. Astronomers speculate that the radiation and winds emitted by the star before its death, in addition to the shockwave created during its explosion, may have played a role in the creation of the snake.Vintage chromogenic print. References in lower margin on front. 20.4 x 25.5CM with margins.