Giant star factory found in neighbouring galaxy

The Hubble telescope has photographed a nebula giving birth to stars.

Astronomers say it gives them a glimpse of processes more common in the early universe.

The brightly glowing gas cloud is in a neighbouring galaxy and is 200 light-years in diameter.

It has been named Hubble V and, thanks to the telescope's sensitivity to ultra-violet light, dozens of ultra-hot stars have been found inside it.

Each one of the four-million-year-old stars glows 100,000 times brighter than our Sun but they are too far away and too crowded together to be seen from ground-based telescopes.

The nebula is in a galaxy called NGC 6822 which is thought to be very similar to the ones found in the early universe.

The galaxy is 1.6 million light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation.