Scientists spot a 'dark nebula' being torn apart by rowdy infant stars — offering clues about our...

A battle is raging between darkness and light in the constellation Circinus, and a new image from the National Science Foundation's Dark Energy Camera captures a key turning point in the cosmic campaign.

Known as the Circinus West molecular cloud, the ominous black structure at the center of the image is a vast conglomeration of star-forming gas located in Circinus, the compass constellation, about 2,500 light-years from Earth. Objects like these are sometimes known as "dark nebulae" because they are so dense with gas and dust that light cannot penetrate them.

The dark cloud shown here stretches an estimated 180 light-years across, or more than 60 times wider than our solar system, and contains the equivalent mass of 250,000 suns.