May – LDN 1768: A turbulent nursery

The dark patch snaking across this spectacular image in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent-bearer) is not an absence of stars, but rather a dense cloud of dust that blocks the light of the stars behind it. This particular dark cloud is known as LDN 1768. Despite their murky appearance, dark nebulae are of huge interest to astronomers because they are star formation regions, home to newborn stars that are still coalescing from clouds of gas and dust. Protostars are relatively cold and emit radiation at submillimetre wavelengths, and so can be studied by telescopes such the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.