Cocoons for Young Stars (4) . . .

The following image shows a region of starbirth in the Large Magellanic Cloud that is about 170,000 light years distant and 150 light years across. It is called N 119. The inset shows a blowup of its central region, which is a nebula called the Papillon Nebula (because of its shape: papillon is the French word for "butterfly").

Stellar winds from hot newborn stars within the nebula are responsible for the ridges, arcs, and filaments. One possible explanation for the unusual shape of the Papillon Nebula is that there are massive stars (10 solar masses or more) forming in the nebula and the radiation pressure from these stars is halting the infall of gas onto these stars and directing it away in a bipolar outflow.