rhamphotheca: “ The Dark Places in Between by Tom Chao This infrared image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), shows that some gas clouds are so cool and thick that even infrared can’t penetrate them. The clouds colored green,...
Zoom

rhamphotheca:

The Dark Places in Between

by Tom Chao

This infrared image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), shows that some gas clouds are so cool and thick that even infrared can’t penetrate them. The clouds colored green, yellow and red are only seen in infrared. However, the black areas in this image — called infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) — are exceptionally cold, dense cloud cores seen in silhouette against the bright diffuse infrared glow of the plane of the Milky Way. The density in these clouds is high enough to lead to the formation of new stars and planets.

(via: Space.com)   (image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA)

(via rhamphotheca)

6space, astronomy, physics,