Chamaeleon Dark Cloud Complex

This image captures the gigantic interstellar clouds in the constellation Chamaeleon. It is an active star-forming region with several dazzling reflection nebulae glowing by reflecting the light of bright-blue young stars.

The dark clouds lurking among the stars are filled with ice, minerals and organic molecules. They will eventually collapse and form new stars. Those stars will have their own planets. Maybe, just maybe, some of those planets will give rise to life just like ours.

BTW, Chamaeleon is a small constellation hiding near the south celestial pole. It is indeed named after the chameleon, a kind of lizard.

(The data was acquired from iTelescope, which I processed using pixinsight and photoshop).