Where it is: 2.73 million light-years from Earth.
Both images highlight cavities, or bubbles, carved out of the surrounding gas and dust by young, rapidly growing giant stars. Previous images of NGC 604 have never revealed these pockets of emptiness in so much detail. Related: Space photo of the week: 'El Gordo' galaxy cluster shakes its guts in largest-ever magnetic field map of space
The region contains around 200 stars, all of which are either B-type or O-type stars — two of the largest types seen in the universe. B-type stars are often around 10 times more massive than the sun, while O-type stars can be up to 100 times the mass of our home star. Both types are also several times hotter than the sun.