The small, bright objects scattered in the upper foreground are thought to be dust clouds orbiting new stars. Because they are likely sites of current or future planet formation, these clouds of orbiting material are called protoplanetary disks.

That the gas and dust are in orbit around stars is suggested by their being flattened into fat disks. As time goes on, the disks should flatten farther, causing the dust and gas to become increasingly concentrated until finally planets can form. The existence of a star in the middle of these small dust clouds is confirmed by infrared images (not shown), which show a hot red dot in the midst of the cool cloud. The protoplanetary disks are also known as "proplyds", in case you are searching for more examples on a Hubble web site.