ESO's New Image of a Dark Nebula Seems to be Missing a Few Stars

A new image from ESO seems to be missing a few stars. While the black gap may seem unusual, it's actually expected. In reality, it's a region of space clogged with gas and dust. This dark cloud, called LDN 483, Lynds Dark Nebula 483, is actually the birthplace of future stars.

In this case, the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile captured the new image of LDN 483 and its surroundings. This dark cloud is located about 700 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Serpens. The cloud itself contains enough dusty material to completely block the visible light from background stars.

LDN 483 is actually classified as a dark nebula, due to its obscuring property. The starless nature of LDN 483 would suggest that this is an area where stars cannot take root and grow, yet the opposite is true. Dark nebulae offer some of the most fertile environments for eventual star formation.

In fact, astronomers have already spotted some of the youngest observable kinds of baby stars buried in LDN 483's interior. These stars are still just balls of gas and dust that are contracting under the force of gravity within the surrounding molecular cloud. Known as protostars, they're still quite cool at just -250 degrees Celsius, and only shine in long-wavelength submillimeter light.

The earliest period of star growth lasts only a few thousand years, which is an extremely short period of time in astronomical terms. Over the course of several million years, the protostars will grow warmer and denser. As more stars emerge from this dark nebula, the dark nebula itself will disperse further and lose its opacity. Eventually, the background stars will come into view.

For now, though, the dark nebula continues to block out background stars as baby stars remain within the cloud, waiting to emerge as fully-formed stars.

Want to see more images? You can check them out at ESO's website.

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