Dark nebula

Star formation
Object classes
Interstellar medium Molecular cloud Bok globule Dark nebula Young stellar object Protostar Pre-main-sequence star T Tauri star Herbig Ae/Be star Herbig–Haro object
Theoretical concepts
Accretion Initial mass function Jeans instability Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism Nebular hypothesis Planetary migration
v t e

A dark nebula or absorption nebula is a type of interstellar cloud, particularly molecular clouds, that is so dense that it obscures the visible wavelengths of light from objects behind it, such as background stars and emission or reflection nebulae. The extinction of the light is caused by interstellar dust grains located in the coldest, densest parts of molecular clouds. Clusters and large complexes of dark nebulae are associated with Giant Molecular Clouds. Isolated small dark nebulae are called Bok globules. Like other interstellar dust or material, things it obscures are only visible using radio waves in radio astronomy or infrared in infrared astronomy.

Dark clouds appear so because of sub-micrometre-sized dust particles, coated with frozen carbon monoxide and nitrogen, which effectively block the passage of light at visible wavelengths. Also present are molecular hydrogen, atomic helium, C¹⁸O (CO with oxygen as the ¹⁸O isotope), CS, NH₃ (ammonia), H₂CO (formaldehyde), c-C₃H₂ (cyclopropenylidene) and a molecular ion N₂H⁺ (diazenylium), all of which are relatively transparent. These clouds are the spawning grounds of stars and planets, and understanding their development is essential to understanding star formation.

The form of such dark clouds is very irregular: they have no clearly defined outer boundaries and sometimes take on convoluted serpentine shapes. The largest dark nebulae are visible to the naked eye, appearing as dark patches against the brighter background of the Milky Way like the Coalsack Nebula and the Great Rift. These naked-eye objects are sometimes known as dark cloud constellations and take on a variety of names.

In the inner outer molecular regions of dark nebulae, important events take place, such as the formation of stars and masers.

The Milky Way as seen by Gaia, with prominent dark features labeled in white, as well as prominent star clouds labeled in black.

Main dark nebulae of the Solar apex half of the galactic plane.

Main dark nebulae of the Solar antapex half of the galactic plane.

Close up on the Orion Arm, with major stellar associations (yellow), nebulae (red) and dark nebulae (grey) around the Local Bubble.

Complexes and constellations

As molecular clouds dark nebula are part of molecular cloud complexes.

Dark nebula form in the night sky apparent dark cloud constellations.

Image gallery

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  Dark nebula LDN 1768 contains protostars.

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  Dark nebula called LDN1774, taken by the Wide Field Imager, an instrument mounted on ESO’s 2.2-meter MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla.

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  Dark nebula LDN 483 is located about 700 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens (The Serpent).

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  Lupus 4 is a dense pocket of gas and dust where new stars are expected to form.

See also

• List of dark nebulae
• Bok globule
• Dark Cloud (disambiguation)