Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science
Related: About this forum"A drop of ink on the luminous sky"
This image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESOs La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the bright star cluster NGC 6520 and its neighbour, the strange gecko-shaped dark cloud Barnard 86. This cosmic pair is set against millions of glowing stars from the brightest part of the Milky Way a region so dense with stars that barely any dark sky is seen across the picture.
This part of the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) is one of the richest star fields in the whole sky the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. The huge number of stars that light up this region dramatically emphasise the blackness of dark clouds like Barnard 86, which appears at the centre of this new picture from the Wide Field Imager, an instrument mounted on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESOs La Silla Observatory in Chile.
This object, a small, isolated dark nebula known as a Bok globule [1], was described as a drop of ink on the luminous sky by its discoverer Edward Emerson Barnard [2], an American astronomer who discovered and photographed numerous comets, dark nebulae, one of Jupiters moons, and made many other contributions. An exceptional visual observer and keen astrophotographer, Barnard was the first to use long-exposure photography to explore dark nebulae.
Through a small telescope Barnard 86 looks like a dearth of stars, or a window onto a patch of distant, clearer sky. However, this object is actually in the foreground of the star field a cold, dark, dense cloud made up of small dust grains that block starlight and make the region appear opaque. It is thought to have formed from the remnants of a molecular cloud that collapsed to form the nearby star cluster NGC 6520, seen just to the left of Barnard 86 in this image.
more
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1307/
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 1191 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (10)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
"A drop of ink on the luminous sky" (Original Post)
n2doc
Feb 2013
OP
nenagh
(1,925 posts)1. Mesmerizing...
Thank you...
FirstLight
(13,360 posts)2. holy wow
Thanks for the new desktop background!
Flying Squirrel
(3,041 posts)3. Faint transmission detected from this area
"I just saved a bundle on car insurance by switching to Geico."
Javaman
(62,531 posts)4. Photos like this simply boggle my mind. nt