How colourful clouds of gas get their hue

The European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope has captured a star-forming region in one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies.

It has observed two distinctive clouds of gas which are 160,000 light years away and high-energy light from these new stars causes the clouds to glow brightly.

The two nebulae - one red and one blue in colour - were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars.

ESO astronomer Dr Jeremy Walsh explains how the nebulae get their intense colour.

Footage courtesy of ESO, music: John Dyson. Produced by Melissa Hogenboom