Dazzling in the Dark

This dazzling image — taken on Maunakea, Hawai’i at the northern site of the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab — shows the Milky Way in vivid detail, allowing us to see not only the stars, but the dusty regions which block their light. Tiny flecks of mostly inorganic matter make up cosmic dust which in turn forms enormous obscuring clouds.