A curved dark nebula is featured in the photo on the website Astronomy Picture of the Day this Thursday (30). Also known as the “Dark Doodad Nebula”, it can be found in the direction of the constellation Musca, the Fly.
In this photo, the nebula appears accompanied by a series of stars — among them are those that form the Southern Cross constellation, easily visible in the southern hemisphere of the Earth. The image also features the so-called “Coalsack Nebula”.
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Located about 700 light-years from Earth, the Doodad Dark Nebula is sharply silhouetted and spans more than 30 light-years. As the name implies, it is a cloud that absorbs light coming from objects behind it and thus appears dark.
The image shows the nebula accompanied by the globular star cluster NGC 4372, which can be identified thanks to its yellowish glow. It forms part of the Milky Way’s halo, and although it appears close to the nebula, the two are separated by thousands of light years.
What are dark nebulae?
Dark nebulae are interstellar clouds formed by dust so densely concentrated that they block light from background stars. On the other hand, they can be “revealed” when they are in front of some bright object, such as an emission nebula or an area rich in stars.
The interior of them is cold, and allows the formation of hydrogen molecules that, one day, can originate new stars. The largest dark nebulae, which can contain more than a million solar masses and span several light years, are known as “molecular clouds”.
In 1919, American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard became the first to create a large catalog of these objects, which included over 180 dark nebulae. Since that time, hundreds of others have been discovered and cataloged in our galaxy.
Source: ETC
