Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2025 August 1
Image Credit &Copyright: Peter Bresseler
Explanation: A small, dark, nebulalooks isolated near the center of this telescopic close-up.The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudletlies within a relatively crowded region of space though.About 7,000 light-years distant andfilled with glowing gas and an embedded cluster of young stars,the region is known as M16 orthe Eagle Nebula.Hubble's iconic imagesof the Eagle Nebula include the famous star-formingPillars of Creation,towering structures of interstellar gas and dust 4 to 5 light-years long.But this small dark nebula, known to some asa Bok globule,is a fraction of a light-year across.The Bok globule stands out insilhouette against the expansive background of M16's diffuse glow.Found scattered within emission nebulae and star clusters,Bok globules are small interstellar clouds of cold molecular gas andobscuring dust that also form stars within their dense,collapsing cores.
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