In some nebulae, stars form out of large clouds of gas and dust; once some stars have formed inside the cloud, their light illuminates the cloud, making it visible to us. These star formation regions are sites of emission and reflection nebulae.
Nebulae
A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases. Originally, the term was used to describe any diffuse astronomical object, including galaxies beyond the Milky Way.