Cosmic Forecast

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Cosmic Forecast: Dark Clouds Will Give Way to Sunshine

Lupus 4, a spider-shaped blob of gas and dust, blots out background stars like a dark cloud on a moonless night in this intriguing new image. Although gloomy for now, dense pockets of material within clouds such as Lupus 4 are where new stars form and where they will later burst into radiant life. The Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile captured this new picture.

Lupus 4 is located about 400 light-years away from Earth, straddling the constellations of Lupus (The Wolf) and Norma (The Carpenter's Square). The cloud is one of several affiliated dark clouds found in a loose star cluster called the Scorpius–Centaurus OB association. An OB association is a relatively young, yet widely dispersed grouping of stars [1]. The stars likely had a common origin in a gigantic cloud of material.

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[Waspie_Dwarf]

Zooming in on the dark cloud Lupus 4

This video sequence takes you from a wide view of the Milky Way deep into a region of dark clouds. The final view of the spider-like Lupus 4 cloud, the site of future star birth, comes from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Credit: ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Music: movetwo

Source: ESO Observatory

[Waspie_Dwarf]

A close-up view of the dark cloud Lupus 4

This close-up pan video shows a new view of the dark cloud Lupus 4 blotting out background stars. It was captured using Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. Lupus 4 is a dense pocket of gas and dust where new stars are expected to form. The cloud is located about 400 light-years away from Earth, on the border between the constellations of Lupus (The Wolf) and Norma (The Carpenter's Square).

Credit: ESO. Music: movetwo

Source: ESO Observatory