This interstellar dust cloud is very vast and dark

Aug 16, 2012 11:48 GMT  ·  By

Barnard 59, a vast interstellar dust cloud in the much-larger Pipe Nebula, was recently the target of the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope, which is located at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) La Silla Observatory, on the outskirts of the Atacama Desert, in Chile.

This photograph was collected using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) instrument on the MPG telescope, and contains exquisite details depicting the wispy structure of the massive cloud. The object appears dark because the image was collected at optical wavelengths.

When dark dust clouds were first discovered, astronomers believed that they actually represented areas of space where no stars existed. As technological means evolved, powerful telescope revealed that the dark material was in fact dust that obscured the light from the stars beyond.

This blocked light can be observed in radio and infrared wavelengths, but not in visible light. The Pipe Nebula, as a whole, is a prime example of such a dust cloud. Barnard 59 is located around 600 to 700 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of Ophiuchus, towards the galactic core.

The reason why astronomers at ESO selected Barnard 59 as the target for their new observations session is that the cloud represents the “mouthpiece” of the Pipe Nebula. The structure is named for American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard, the first to record dark nebulae systematically.

“Barnard cataloged a total of 370 dark nebulae all over the sky. A self-made man, he bought his first house with the prize money from discovering several comets,” ESO experts say in a statement.

“Barnard was an extraordinary observer with exceptional eyesight who made contributions in many fields of astronomy in the late 19th and early 20th century,” they go on to say.

The dozens of tiny blue, green and red strips visible throughout the image are actually asteroids in orbit around the Sun. Most of them are located in the Inner Asteroid Belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

“At first glance, your attention is most likely drawn to the centre of the image where dark twisting clouds look a little like the legs of a vast spider stretched across a web of stars. However, after a few moments you will begin to notice several finer details,” ESO astronomers say.

“Foggy, smoky shapes in the middle of the darkness are lit up by new stars that are forming. Star formation is common within regions that contain dense, molecular clouds, such as in dark nebulae,” they conclude.