A collection of hubble photography – the hubblesite.org – is the source for this beautiful image. The provided information is worth a read, here’s an excerpt:
What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour—fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 24 minutes!
Originally ran across this image at the nasaimages.org, where, for example, one can see this image of, and get information on, the Eagle Nebula.
This image is 9.6 arcminutes (87,000 light-years or 27,000 parsecs) wide.
