Glossary term: Dark Nebula
Description: A dark nebula is a cool cloud of gas and dust in space which blocks much of the light from stars and bright nebulae behind it, and therefore appears dark. It is the dust which blocks the light from behind, even though dust makes up only 1% of the matter in the nebula. Dark nebulae block visible and ultraviolet light, but it is possible to see through them by looking in infrared light. The best-known example is the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation of Orion.
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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
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In Other Languages
- Arabic: السديم المظلم
- German: Dunkelnebel
- French: Nébuleuse sombre
- Italian: Nebulosa Oscura
- Japanese: 暗黒星雲 (external link)
- Korean: 암흑성운
- Nepali: कृष्ण नीहारिका
- Brazilian Portuguese: Nebulosa Escura
- Simplified Chinese: 暗星云
- Traditional Chinese: 暗星雲
Related Media
Dust Clouds and Nebulae near R Coronae Australis
Caption: The image shows a dark and dusty cloud and some bright reflection nebulae near the binary star R Coronae Australis. The dark cloud spans several light-years and is located in the constellation Corona Australis near the constellation Sagittarius, in the direction of the Milky Way's center. The cloud appears to swallow the light of distant stars behind it as the dust particles in it scatter light passing through in all directions. This gives it the appearance of a void in the sky. This dark nebula is part of the broader Corona Australis Molecular Clouds. R Coronae Australis forms part of the Coronet Cluster, a collection of young stars which formed at some point in the last two million years.
Around R Coronae Australis in the center of the image is the small reflection nebula NGC 6729 with two blueish reflection nebulae NGC 6726 and NGC 6727 lying to the upper right of it. In these nebulae the dust scatters light from bright stars near the nebula towards an observer on Earth, making it glow in this image.
Credit: ESO
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License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
