The "Spider" Nebula, formally named IC 417, lies about 10,000 light-years away from Earth and is a site of active star formation. It is in the outer part of the Milky Way, almost exactly in the opposite direction from the galactic center. A cluster of young stars known as "Stock 8" are seen at the center right of the image. The light from this cluster carves out a bowl in the nearby dust clouds, seen here as green fluff. Along the sinuous tail in the center and to the left, groupings of red point sources are also young stars.

In a newly released picture by NASA, an astrological babysitter known as the "Spider" stands guard near the not-pictured NGC 1931, a much smaller object.

Together, the diminutive NGC 1931 and the expansive Spider - officially named IC 417 - form what is called the “Spider and the Fly” nebulae, according to NASA. Captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), the Spider is located about 10,000 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Auriga, a site of star formation.

Large nebulae like the Spider tend to house young stars, which is evidenced by the large cluster to the right of the center in the image. These stars are called “Stock 8.”

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“The light from this cluster carves out a bowl in the nearby dust clouds, seen in the image as green fluff. Along the sinuous tail in the center, and to the left, the groupings of red point sources clumped in the green are also young stars,” writes NASA.

The green coloring of the nebula isn’t it’s natural tint. Visible colors were assigned to the infrared wavelengths, which are invisible to the unaided eye. Light with a wavelength of 1.2 microns are shown in blue, and wavelengths of 3.6 and 4.5 microns are in green and red, respectively, according to NASA.

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