Explanation:
Based on wide field photographs, American astronomer
Edward Emerson Barnard cataloged the
dark markings of the sky in the
early 20th century.
Barnard's markings are dark nebulae,
interstellar clouds of obscuring gas and dust.
Their shapes are visible in
cosmic silhouette because they
lie in the foreground along the line-of-sight to rich star fields
and stellar nurseries near the plane of our Galaxy.
This deep
telescopic image from the early 21st century captures a
tantalizing array of Barnard's dusty nebulae toward the
constellation Taurus and the Taurus molecular cloud
some 400 light-years away.
Included in
the nearly 1 degree wide field of view is Barnard 7
(the 7th object in the catalog) at the upper right, next to
a dusty bluish reflection nebula.
Young variable star
RY Tauri is emerging from a
yellowish cocoon of dust near top center.
Typically a light-year or so across, many of Barnard's
dark nebulae
are themselves likely sites of future star formation.
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