IC 348 is a star-forming region in the constellation Perseus located about 315 parsecs from the Sun. It consists of nebulosity and an associated 2-million-year-old cluster of roughly 400 stars within an angular diameter of 20″. The most massive stars in the cluster are the binary star system BD+31°643, which has a combined spectral class of B5. Based upon infrared observations using the Spitzer Space Telescope, about half of the stars in the cluster have a circumstellar disk, of which 60% are thick or primordial disks. The age of this cluster has allowed three low mass brown dwarfs to be discovered. These objects lose heat as they age, so they are more readily discovered while they are still young

 IC 348 (also known as IC 1985) is a rarely imaged open star cluster surrounded by a reflection nebula. The reason this object is not imaged is due to the very bright star glare washing most of the detail away. Countless hours slowly expanding this image to fight of the glare and reveal the wonderful image you see here. The light from the roughly 400 stars in the cluster is scattered by  clouds of dust in the star-forming region, producing the reflection  nebula.