Rich star fieldsand glowing hydrogen gas silhouettedense, opaque clouds of interstellar gas and dustin this Hubble Space Telescop close-upof IC 2944, a bright star forming regio 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 on light-year wide.Combined the clouds contain materia equivalent to about15 times the mass of the Sun, but will they actuall collapse to form massive stars?Along with other data, th sharpHubble images indicate thatThackeray's globules are fractured and churning as a resultof intense ultraviolet radiation from young, hot stars alreadyenergizing and heating the bright emission nebula.These and similar dark globulesknown to be associated with otherstar forming regions may ultimately be dissipatedby their hostile environment --like cosmic lumps of butter in a hot frying pan.
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