Celestial fireworks: A brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resembles a glittering fireworks display in this Hubble Space Telescope image. Westerlund 2 is a giant cluster of about 3,000 stars residing in a raucous stellar breeding called Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina.

Cosmic sparkle: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured the globular cluster NGC 2298, a sparkling collection of thousands of stars held together by their mutual gravitational attraction. Globular clusters are typically home to older populations of stars, mostly residing in the dusty outskirts of galaxies.

Young stars 'feed' on magnetic 'rivers': This image shows narrow, spindle-like structures, called filaments, that act like rivers channeling material into the Serpens South star cluster, a group of more than 60 young stars that is forming in a dense cloud of gas and dust nearly 1,400 lightyears away.

Star factory: The star-forming nebula W51 is one of the largest "star factories" in the Milky Way galaxy. Interstellar dust blocks the visible light emitted by the region, but it is revealed in this image by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope which captures infrared light that can penetrate dust clouds.

Hubble captures starry constellation: New and old stars alike twinkle in the dusty spiral arms of NGC 1087, a barred spiral galaxy located 80 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus. NGC 1087 has a diameter of 87,000 light-years and a very small nucleus.

Cat's paw nebula: This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Cat's Paw Nebula, so named for the large, round features that create the impression of a feline footprint.

Webb snaps 'antics' of young stars: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the “antics” of a pair of actively forming young stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light.