Mark McCaughrean | Despite all this gas & dust however, we know that the protostar at the heart of HH212 is a fairly isolated, not surrounded by big dense molecular clouds.
How do we know that?
Because there are galaxies *everywhere* in this image, strewn across the image in the far distance.
If there was a dense cloud, we wouldn’t see them.
Here’s a small crop showing a nice group: pan & zoom & you’ll see loads more.
