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Credit & Copyright: Team Ciel Austral
Explanation:
Sure,
Halloween is an astronomy holiday.
But astronomers always enjoy scanning the heavens for
spook-tacular galaxies, stars, and nebulae.
This favorite is item number 43 from the Beverly Lynds 1962
Catalog of Dark Nebulae,
fondly known as the
Cosmic Bat nebula.
While its visage looks
alarmingly
like a scary flying mammal,
Lynds Dark Nebula 43 is over 12 light-years across.
Glowing with eerie light, stars are forming within the
dusty interstellar molecular cloud that is dense enough
to appear in silhouette against a
luminous background of Milky Way stars.
Watch out.
This Cosmic Bat nebula
is a mere 400 light-years distant toward the
serpent-bearing constellation Ophiucus.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: molecular cloud - dark nebula
Publications with words: molecular cloud - dark nebula
See also: