A hole in the sky

Eso_potw1518a_1024

eso_potw1518a May 4th, 2015

Credit: ESO

Rather than showing spectacular objects, some of the most surprising images of the Universe instead focus on emptiness. This new image from the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope shows dark tentacles swirling outwards from a dark, blank spot of space in the centre of the frame, particularly conspicuous against the dense peppering of bright gold and red stars across the rest of the image. This region is not a hole in the cosmos, or an empty patch of sky. The dark lanes are actually made up of thick, opaque dust lying between us and the packed star field behind it. This obscuring dust forms part of a dark molecular cloud, cold and dense areas where large quantities of dust and molecular gas mingle and block the visible light emitted by more distant stars. It is still unclear how these clouds form, but they are thought to be the very early stages of new star formation — in the future, the subject of this image may well collapse inwards on itself to form a new star system. Although the cloud in this image is a fairly anonymous resident of the nearby Universe — catalogued as LDN1774 — one of the most famous examples of a molecular cloud is the very similar Barnard 68, which lies some 500 light-years away from us. Barnard 68 has been observed extensively using ESO telescopes, both in visible (eso9924a) and infrared light (eso9934, eso0102a). As shown in these different images, it is possible to probe through dark cosmic dust using infrared light, but visible-light observations such as those shown in this VLT image cannot see beyond the smokescreen. This image was taken by the Wide Field Imager, an instrument mounted on ESO’s 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1518a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Appearance > Dark > Molecular Cloud
Eso_potw1518a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 17h 22m 32.9s
DEC = -27° 4’ 18.2”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
34.7 x 33.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Ophiuchus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (B) -
Green MPG-2.2m (WFI) Optical (V) -
Red MPG-2.2m (WFI) Infrared (I) -
Eso_potw1518a_1280
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ID
potw1518a
Subject Category
B.4.2.3.1  
Subject Name
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2015-05-04T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1518a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
Instrument
WFI, WFI, WFI
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Infrared
Bandpass
B, V, I
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
260.637091446, -27.0717302416
Reference Dimension
8748.0, 8418.0
Reference Pixel
4374.0, 4209.0
Scale
-6.61181485473e-05, 6.61181485473e-05
Rotation
0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw1518a
Metadata Date
2014-05-06T11:39:46+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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