Dust Clouds in The Pac Man Nebula | Hubble

Dust Clouds in The Pac Man Nebula | Hubble

The yearly ritual of spring cleaning clears a house of dust as well as dust "bunnies", those pesky dust balls that frolic under beds and behind furniture. The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has photographed similar dense knots of dust and gas in our Milky Way Galaxy. This cosmic dust, however, is not a nuisance. It is a concentration of elements that are responsible for the formation of stars in our galaxy and throughout the universe.

Distance: 9,000 light years

These opaque, dark knots of gas and dust are called Bok globules, and they are absorbing light in the center of the nearby emission nebula and star-forming region, NGC 281. The globules are named after astronomer Bart Bok, who proposed their existence in the 1940's.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Acknowledgment: P. McCullough (STScI)

Release Date: April 4, 2006

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