Sparkling at the edge of a giant cloud of gas and dust, the Flame Nebula, also referred to as NGC 2024, is in fact the hideout of a cluster of young, blue, massive stars, whose light sets the gas ablaze. Located 1300 light-years away towards the constellation of Orion, the nebula owes its typical color to the glow of hydrogen atoms, heated by the stars. The latter are obscured by a dark, forked dusty structure in the center of the image and are only revealed by infrared observations.