NGC 281 in Cassiopeia earned its nickname from its resemblance to the classic arcade character, with a dark dust lane cutting across the bright nebula like an open mouth. Lying around 9,200 light-years away, it is an active star-forming region containing a young open cluster, IC 1590, whose hot stars are ionising the surrounding gas and driving prominent Bok globules — the dark teardrops visible within the nebula — which may themselves be collapsing to form new stars.