Explanation:
Part of a dark expanse that splits
the crowded plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the Aquila Rift arcs
through the northern hemisphere's summer skies
near bright star Altair and the Summer Triangle.
In silhouette against the Milky Way's faint
starlight,
its dusty molecular clouds likely contain raw material
to form hundreds of thousands of stars and
astronomers eagerly search
the clouds for telltale signs of star birth.
This
telescopic close-up looks toward the region at a
fragmented Aquila dark cloud complex identified as LDN 673,
stretching across a field of view slightly wider than the full moon.
In the scene,
visible indications of
energetic outflows associated
with young stars
include the small red tinted nebulosity RNO 109 at top
left and Herbig-Haro object
HH32
above and right of center.
The dark clouds
in
Aquila are estimated to be some 600 light-years away.
At that distance, this field of view spans about 7 light-years.
