Infrared Dark Clouds Cataloged Across the Cosmos

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are dark patches of cold dust and gas seen in the sky against the bright diffuse infrared glow of warm dust in our galaxy.

These IRDCs, massive and rich in molecules, are natural sites for star birth — one of the main reasons why astronomers are actively studying them.

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Source

NASA, JPL-Caltech/S. Carey (SSC/Caltech)

A false-color infrared image of the Infrared Dark Cloud called “the Snake” as seen by the IRAC camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have produced a new catalog of IRDCs from IRAC’s sky survey images using a new computational search-and-detection algorithm. (Blue dots are stars relatively undimmed by dust, while the red dots are young stars embedded in the cloud.)

Source / Image Courtesy

By Credit: NASA, Jeff Hester, and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University)

Star Formation

Source / Image Courtesy

This sequence compares views of the region around the dark cloud Barnard 86 in infrared and visible light. The infrared view comes from the VISTA survey telescope (eso1242) and the visible light view is a new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

In the infrared the cloud is more transparent and less prominent and the bright star cluster NGC 6520 becomes almost invisible.