Part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull); the cloud lies about 450 light-years from Earth. Its relative closeness

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Part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull); the cloud lies about 450 light-years from Earth. Its relative closeness makes it an ideal place to study the formation of stars. Many dark clouds of obscuring dust are clearly visible against the background stars. This image shows two parts of a long, filamentary structure in this cloud, which are known as Barnard 211 and Barnard 213. Their names come from Edward Emerson Barnard's photographic atlas of the dark markings of the sky, compiled in the early 20th century. In visible light, these regions appear as dark lanes, lacking in stars. Barnard correctly argued that this appearance was due to obscuring matter in space. This image was created from photographic material taken with the Oschin Telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory, forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2.

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Size: 8289px × 4216px
Photo credit: © DAVIDE DE MARTIN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 211, 213, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, b211, b213, barnard, camera, cloud, dark, dust, emission, evolution, hii, molecular, nebula, observatory, oschin, palomar, reflection, region, schmidt, space, star, taurus, telescope