{"id":65074,"date":"2024-10-31T13:30:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T13:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ad93f757-6727-4e1c-9ced-07d05f0d5c0f"},"modified":"2024-10-31T14:39:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T14:39:38","slug":"howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Howlingly-good image of Dark Wolf Nebula is as big as four full Moons in the sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Iain Todd\n <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 31 October 2024 at 13:30 PM<\/p>

\n\n

This wolf-like silhouette of dark cosmic dust is known, fittingly, as the Dark Wolf Nebula, and is seen here in a newly released image just in time for Halloween.<\/p>

The Dark Wolf Nebula is found in the constellation Scorpius and located 5,300 lightyears<\/a> from Earth.<\/p>

From our perspective on Earth, the nebula takes up the same size in the sky as four full Moons.<\/p>

More creepy cosmos content<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>
Scariest things in space<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>
Halloween stargazing tips<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li>
NASA’s Halloween Sun<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/li> <\/ul> <\/div>

Credit NASA\/SDO <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <\/div> <\/div>
And it’s part of an even larger nebula called Gum 55.<\/p>
This view of the nebula was captured in a 283-million-pixel image by the VLT Survey Telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.<\/p>

<\/div> <\/figure> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full has-lightbox\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/dark-wolf-nebula.jpg\" alt=\"View of the Dark Wolf Nebula captured by ESO's VLT Survey Telescope. Credit: ESO\/VPHAS team\" class=\"wp-image-164117\"\/> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> View of the Dark Wolf Nebula captured by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope. Click to expand. Credit: ESO\/VPHAS team <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Dark nebulae explained<\/strong><\/h2> <p>It was once thought that patches of blackness in the sky were simply regions devoid of stars.<\/p> <p>But in actual fact, these objects are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/astrophotography\/nebulae\/dark-nebula\">dark nebulae<\/a>: huge clouds of thick cosmic dust that block out light from distant stars.<\/p> <p>Dark nebulae can’t be seen in visible light, as the dust within them only lets through radiation at longer wavelengths like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/space-science\/infrared-astronomy\">infrared<\/a>.<\/p> <figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full has-lightbox\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"803\" src=\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2024\/10\/dark-wolf-nebula-highlights.jpg\" alt=\"Highlights of an image of the Dark Wolf Nebula captured by ESO's VLT Survey Telescope. Credit: ESO\/VPHAS team\" class=\"wp-image-164115\"\/> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Highlights of an image of the Dark Wolf Nebula captured by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope. Click to expand. Credit: ESO\/VPHAS team <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <p>However, these apparently dark and lifeless objects actually contain the ingredients for new stars to form, so astronomers are interested in studying them in search of new stars in the making.<\/p> <p>The colourful clouds in the background of this image are made of mostly hydrogen gas, glowing as a result of intense radiation emanating from newborn stars within.<\/p> <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eso.org\"><strong>www.eso.org<\/strong><\/a><\/p> <p><strong><em>What are your favourite dark nebulae? Let us know by emailing <a href=\"mailto:contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com\">contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Iain Todd Published: Thursday, 31 October 2024 at 13:30 PM This wolf-like silhouette of dark cosmic dust is known, fittingly, as the Dark Wolf Nebula, and is seen here in a newly released image just in time for Halloween. The Dark Wolf Nebula is found in the constellation Scorpius and located 5,300 lightyears from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":65075,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky.jpg",1200,1200,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky-768x768.jpg",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky-1024x1024.jpg",800,800,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky.jpg",1200,1200,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/10\/howlingly-good-image-of-dark-wolf-nebula-is-as-big-as-four-full-moons-in-the-sky.jpg",1200,1200,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Iain Todd Published: Thursday, 31 October 2024 at 13:30 PM This wolf-like silhouette of dark cosmic dust is known, fittingly, as the Dark Wolf Nebula, and is seen here in a newly released image just in time for Halloween. The Dark Wolf Nebula is found in the constellation Scorpius and located 5,300 lightyears from…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/65074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}