Credit & Copyright: Acquisition: Stas Volskiy (Chilescope.com),
Processing:
Robert Eder
Explanation:
Dark markings
and bright nebulae in this telescopic southern sky view
are telltale signs of young stars and
active
star
formation.
They lie a mere 650 light-years away,
at the boundary
of the
local
bubble
and the Chamaeleon molecular cloud complex.
Regions with young stars identified as dusty reflection nebulae
from the 1946
Cederblad
catalog
include the C-shaped Ced 110 just above and left of center,
and bluish Ced 111 below it.
Also a standout in the frame, the orange tinted V-shape of the
Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula
(Cha IRN) was carved by material streaming from a newly formed low-mass star.
The well-composed image
spans 1.5 degrees.
That's about 17 light-years at the estimated distance of the nearby
Chamaeleon
I molecular cloud.
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: molecular cloud
Publications with words: molecular cloud
See also: