... 28.12.2008 . ... Credit: Hubble Heritage Team ( STScI / AURA ), NASA Explanation: Rich star fields and glowing hydrogen gas silhouette dense, opaque clouds of interstellar gas and dust in this Hubble Space Telescope close-up of IC 2944 , a bright star forming region in Centaurus , 5,900 light-years away. The largest of these dark globules , first spotted by South African astronomer A. D. Thackeray in 1950, is likely two separate but overlapping clouds, each more than one light-year wide. ...