APEX image of a star-forming filament in Taurus

This image from the APEX telescope, of part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, shows a sinuous filament of cosmic dust more than ten light-years long. In it, newborn stars are hidden, and dense clouds of gas are on the verge of collapsing to form yet more stars. The cosmic dust grains are so cold that observations at submillimetre wavelengths, such as these made by the LABOCA camera on APEX, are needed to detect their faint glow. This image shows two regions in the cloud: the upper-right part of the filament shown here is Barnard 211, while the lower-left part is Barnard 213.

The submillimetre-wavelength observations from the LABOCA camera on APEX, which reveal the heat glow of the cosmic dust grains, are shown here in orange tones. They are superimposed on a visible-light image of the region, which shows the rich background of stars. The bright star above the filament is φ Tauri.

Credit:

ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/A. Hacar et al./Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin.

About the Image

Id:eso1209a
Type:Observation
Release date:15 February 2012, 12:00
Related releases:eso1209
Size:2984 x 3377 px

About the Object

Name:Taurus Molecular Cloud
Type:Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Dark : Molecular Cloud
Distance:450 light years
Constellation:Taurus
Category:Stars

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5.9 MB
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Coordinates

Position (RA):4 19 21.54
Position (Dec):27° 22' 14.03"
Field of view:50.11 x 56.71 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.8° left of vertical

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Optical
B
Digitized Sky Survey 2
N/A
Optical
Pseudogreen (B+R)
Digitized Sky Survey 2
N/A
Optical
R
Digitized Sky Survey 2
N/A
Millimeter
Submillimetre
870 μmAtacama Pathfinder Experiment
LABOCA
Infrared
I
Digitized Sky Survey 2
N/A