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Credit & Copyright: Giovanni Benintende
Explanation:
Spooky shapes seem to haunt
this starry expanse,
drifting through the night in the royal constellation
Cepheus.
Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds faintly visible
in dimly reflected starlight.
Far from your own neighborhood
on planet Earth, they lurk at the edge of the
Cepheus Flare
molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away.
Over 2 light-years across and brighter than the other ghostly apparitions,
the nebula known as
Sh2-136
near the center of the field is even seen in infrared light.
Also cataloged as
Bok globule
CB230,
the core of that cloud is collapsing
and is likely a binary star system in the early stages of formation.
Take a survey on
Aesthetics and Astronomy.
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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 - star formation
Publications with words: molecular cloud - star formation
See also: