7 breathtaking pictures of Nebulae captured by NASA

The Orion Nebula is a picture book of star formation, from the massive, young stars shaping the nebula to the pillars of dense gas that may be the homes of budding stars.

The star V830 Orionis shines on the cloud of material left over from its formation, here seen as the NGC 1999 reflection nebula.

The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula. Though it looks like a bubble or eye from Earth's point of view, the Helix is actually a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases.

This Hubble mosaic is the highest resolution image ever made of the entire Crab Nebula, which is located 6,500 light-years away.

These opaque, dark knots of gas and dust called "Bok globules" are absorbing light in the center of the nearby emission nebula and star-forming region, NGC 281.

In celebration of the 29th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers used Hubble to capture this festive, colorful look at the tentacled Southern Crab Nebula.

Object NGC 7635, better known as the Bubble Nebula, is located about 7,100 light-years away in the Cassiopeia constellation.