The little fox and the giant stars

Situated 8,000 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula - Latin for "little fox" - the region in the image is known as Vulpecula OB1. It is a "stellar association" in which a batch of truly giant "OB" stars is being born. O and B stars are the largest stars that can form. This image, released on May 23, 2016, was obtained as part of Herchel's Hi-GAL key-project using the infrared space observatory's instruments to image the entire galactic plane in five different infrared wavelengths. Photo by ESA/NASA/UPI