| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Cosmic Ink-blot Test: Can You See the Gecko in Space?
NGC 6520 and its neighbour, the strangely 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. Credit: ESO
A small, isolated dark nebula known as a Bok globule was described as “a drop of ink on the luminous sky” by its discoverer, astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard. Through a small telescope, the object seen here, Barnard 86, does appear as though someone may have dropped a blob of dark ink on the telescope lens. Or perhaps it appears as a spot where there are no stars, or a window into 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.
Some say Barnard 86 looks like a gecko … can you see the resemblance?
(…)
Read the rest of Cosmic Ink-blot Test: Can You See the Gecko in Space? (110 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Post tags: Barnard 86, Bok Globules, ESO, Observatories
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
2013-02-13 07:45:25
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/99920/cosmic-ink-blot-test-can-you-see-the-gecko-in-space/
Source:
