Thackeray's Globules: Nebula IC 2944 in Centaurus | Victor Blanco Telescope

Thackeray's Globules: Nebula IC 2944 in Centaurus | Victor Blanco Telescope

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic II camera on the 4-meter Victor Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory. An array of dark Bok globules, known as Thackeray's Globules, can be seen in silhouette against the emission nebula IC 2944 in the constellation Centaurus. These dense, opaque dust clouds are silhouetted against nearby bright stars in the busy star-forming region. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (yellow) filters. In this image, north is to the right, and east is up. This is one of the last observations completed with the Mosaic II camera before it was decommissioned.

Distance: ~6,500 light years

Astronomer A.D. Thackeray first spied the globules in IC 2944 in 1950. Globules like these have been known since Dutch-American astronomer Bart Bok first drew attention to such objects in 1947.

However, astronomers still know very little about their origin and nature, except that they are generally associated with areas of star formation, called 'HII regions' due to the presence of hydrogen gas. IC 2944 is filled with gas and dust that is illuminated and heated by a loose cluster of massive stars. These stars are much hotter and much more massive than our Sun.

These thick clouds of dust, known as the Thackeray globules, are silhouetted against the glowing gas of the nebula. These globules are under fierce bombardment from the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars. They are being eroded away and also fragmenting, rather like lumps of butter dropped onto a hot frying pan. It is likely that Thackeray’s globules will be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars. 

The 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope was commissioned in 1974. It is a near twin of the Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. In 1995 it was dedicated and named in honor of Puerto Rican astronomer Víctor Manuel Blanco. It is also part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a visible and near-infrared survey that aims to probe the dynamics of the expansion of the Universe.

Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:

https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and N.S. van der Bliek (NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

Release Date: June 26, 2012

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