Astronomy Picture of the Day: 11/18/18 - R Coronae Australis Complex

This image was taken by the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile of a region located approximately 420 light-years" distance (in the constellation of Corona Australis).

The region, formally known as R Coronae Australis Complex (named after R Coronae Australis, the star located in the center of the image), is one of the closest and most spectacular star formation regions in our galaxy. The blue areas are a result of starlight reflecting from the dust particles that comprise portions of the nebula. The dark areas, however, are a product of a similar mechanism, but instead of the starlight reflecting from the dust particles, it is absorbed, making them impenetrable to visible light.

Over all, the region covers a full 33.7 x 31.9 arc-minutes (approximately the diameter of the full Moon) of our sky, cram-packed with variable stars (stars that have luminosities that vary over time), with some similar in mass to our own sun. Said stars do not emit enough ultraviolet radiation to ionize the hydrogen molecules located within.

Sources & Further Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-111818-r-coronae-australis-complex/

Image Credit: European Space Observatory/La Silla Observatory

Astronomy Photo of the Day: 11/16/13 - Barnard 39

In yet another great image captured by astrophotographer Alessandro Galassi, we come across Barnard 39: a nebular complex that also contains an open cluster. Both of which, are located in the constellation of Monoceros.

Just the same as the rest of the nebulae in the Barnard Catalog, which contains more than 300 celestial regions, this particular region also has a dark nebulae. These areas are composed of dense interstellar dust grains, making them opaque to visible light.

Sources & Additional Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-photo-of-the-day-111613-barnard-39/

Image Credit: Alessandro Galassi

T-Tauri Molecular Cloud

This utterly stunning image is of a star-forming region in the Taurus Molecular Cloud, which is located about 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Taurus. The area is filled with intricate filaments of dense material, with each obscuring the light from newly-born, still embedded, stars. Here, one can see two specific regions in the cloud. The first distinct region is in the upper-right part of the filament, which extends more than 10 light-years in length; known as Barnard 211. The other, dubbed Barnard 213, can be seen in the lower-left hand portion of the image.

Both names come from a 20th-century astronomer named Edward Emerson Barnard, who argued that the overall look of this area - and similar T Tauri regions - is due to obscuring matter in space. Barnard went on to catalog various "dark markings of the sky," which we now know as dark nebulae.

Learn more about this region - and how this image was formulated - here: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/t-tauri-molecular-cloud/

Image Credit: ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/A. Hacar et al./Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin.