To some, the
dark shape looks like a mythical boogeyman. Scientifically, Lynds’ Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears against a faint background of glowing
hydrogen gas only visible in long telescopic exposures of the region. In
contrast, the brighter reflection nebula vdB 62 is more easily seen just above and to the right
of center in the featured image. LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way
Galaxy, close on the sky to Barnard‘s Loop, a large cloud surrounding the rich complex of emission
nebulae found in the Belt and
Sword of Orion. With swept-back outlines, the obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought to lie at a similar
distance, perhaps 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, this 2-degree wide field of view would span about 60
light-years. Young stars do lie hidden within the dark expanse and have been revealed in Spitzer Space
Telescope infrared images.
Image & info via APOD
Image
Credit & Copyright: Joshua Carter
Source: LDN
1622: The Boogeyman Nebula – Scents of Science (myfusimotors.com)
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