"Reflection nebula In astronomy, reflection nebulae are clouds of interstellar dust which might reflect the light of a nearby star or stars. The energy from the nearby stars is insufficient to ionize the gas of the nebula to create an emission nebula, but is enough to give sufficient scattering to make the dust visible. Thus, the frequency spectrum shown by reflection nebulae is similar to that of the illuminating stars. Among the microscopic particles responsible for the scattering are carbon compounds (e. g. diamond dust) and compounds of other elements such as iron and nickel. The latter two are often"
"Nebula A nebula (Latin for ""cloud"" or ""fog""; pl. nebulae, nebulæ, or nebulas) is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases. Originally, the term was used to describe any diffuse astronomical object, including galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The Andromeda Galaxy, for instance, was once referred to as the ""Andromeda Nebula"" (and spiral galaxies in general as ""spiral nebulae"") before the true nature of galaxies was confirmed in the early 20th century by Vesto Slipher, Edwin Hubble and others. Most nebulae are of vast size; some are hundreds of light years in diameter. A nebula that"
"Dust lane A dust lane is a relatively dense obscuring band of interstellar dust, observed as a dark swath against the background of a brighter object, especially a galaxy. These dust lanes can usually be seen in spiral galaxies (e.g., the Milky Way) when viewed from the edge. Due to the dense and relatively thick nature of this dust, light from the galaxy is reduced by several magnitudes. In the Milky Way, this reduction of light makes it impossible to see the light from the central bulge of the galaxy from Earth. This dust, as well as the gasses also"
"Interstellar cloud An interstellar cloud is generally an accumulation of gas, plasma, and dust in our and other galaxies. Put differently, an interstellar cloud is a denser-than-average region of the interstellar medium, (ISM), the matter and radiation that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. Depending on the density, size, and temperature of a given cloud, its hydrogen can be neutral, making an H I region; ionized, or plasma making it an H II region; or molecular, which are referred to simply as molecular clouds, or sometimetimes dense clouds. Neutral and ionized clouds are sometimes also"
"found within these lanes, mix together and combine to form stars and planets. Dust lane A dust lane is a relatively dense obscuring band of interstellar dust, observed as a dark swath against the background of a brighter object, especially a galaxy. These dust lanes can usually be seen in spiral galaxies (e.g., the Milky Way) when viewed from the edge. Due to the dense and relatively thick nature of this dust, light from the galaxy is reduced by several magnitudes. In the Milky Way, this reduction of light makes it impossible to see the light from the central bulge"
"called ""diffuse clouds"". An interstellar cloud is formed by the gas and dust particles from a red giant in its later life. The chemical composition of interstellar clouds is determined by studying electromagnetic radiation or EM radiation that they emanate, and we receive – from radio waves through visible light, to gamma rays on the electromagnetic spectrum – that we receive from them. Large radio telescopes scan the intensity in the sky of particular frequencies of electromagnetic radiation which are characteristic of certain molecules' spectra. Some interstellar clouds are cold and tend to give out EM radiation of large wavelengths."
"They range from a few light years to dozens of light years across. While they are not technically cirrus clouds, the dust clouds are referred to as ""cirrus"" because of their similarity to the clouds on Earth. They also emit infrared radiation, similar to the way cirrus clouds on Earth reflect heat being radiated out into space. Footnotes Bibliography Cirrus cloud Cirrus (cloud classification symbol: Ci) is a genus of atmospheric cloud generally characterized by thin, wispy strands, giving the type its name from the Latin word ""cirrus"", meaning a ringlet or curling lock of hair. This cloud can form"
"metallicity is needed. High-velocity clouds are identified with an HVC prefix, as with HVC 127-41-330. Interstellar cloud An interstellar cloud is generally an accumulation of gas, plasma, and dust in our and other galaxies. Put differently, an interstellar cloud is a denser-than-average region of the interstellar medium, (ISM), the matter and radiation that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. Depending on the density, size, and temperature of a given cloud, its hydrogen can be neutral, making an H I region; ionized, or plasma making it an H II region; or molecular, which are referred to"
"dust particles and such."" The dust cloud is generated using the Nihka motor dust generator. The dust cloud is composed of aluminum oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, water, and nitrogen, as well as smaller amounts of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, monatomic chlorine, and monatomic hydrogen. According to NASA, Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER ) instrument will track the CARE dust cloud for days or even months. The SHIMMER instrument has previously viewed natural noctilucent clouds for the past two years. The CARE will be the first space viewing of an artificial noctilucent cloud. The rocket was set to launch"
"space, observed by the Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope, has made it clear that carbon-containing molecules are ubiquitous in space. These include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), fullerenes and diamondoids (hydrocarbons that have the same crystal structure as diamond). If dust in space has a similar concentration, a gram of it would carry up to 10 quadrillion of them, but so far there is little evidence for their presence in the interstellar medium; they are difficult to tell apart from diamondoids. A 2014 study led by James Kennett at the University of California Santa Barbara identified a thin"
"Cosmic dust Cosmic dust, also called extraterrestrial dust or space dust, is dust which exists in outer space, or has fallen on Earth. Most cosmic dust particles are between a few molecules to 0.1 µm in size. Cosmic dust can be further distinguished by its astronomical location: intergalactic dust, interstellar dust, interplanetary dust (such as in the zodiacal cloud) and circumplanetary dust (such as in a planetary ring). In the Solar System, interplanetary dust causes the zodiacal light. Solar System dust includes comet dust, asteroidal dust, dust from the Kuiper belt, and interstellar dust passing through the Solar System. Thousands"
"Intergalactic dust Intergalactic dust is cosmic dust in between galaxies in intergalactic space. Evidence for intergalactic dust has been suggested as early as 1949, and study of it grew throughout the late 20th century. There are large variations in the distribution of intergalactic dust. The dust may affect intergalactic distance measurements, such as to supernova and quasars in other galaxies. Intergalactic dust can form intergalactic dust clouds, known to exist around some galaxies since the 1960s. By the 1980s, at least four intergalactic dust clouds had been discovered within several megaparsec (Mpc) of the Milky Way galaxy, exemplified by the"
"Veil Nebula The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun, which exploded around 8,000 years ago. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, or 36 times the area, of the full Moon). The distance to the nebula is"
"satellites and the Spitzer Space Telescope and has recently detected by the COSMOSOMAS at microwave frequencies as a source of anomalous ""spinning dust"" emission. Perseus molecular cloud The Perseus molecular cloud (Per MCld) is a nearby (600 ly) giant molecular cloud in the constellation of Perseus and contains over 10,000 solar masses of gas and dust covering an area of 6 by 2 degrees. Unlike the Orion molecular cloud it is almost invisible apart from two clusters, IC 348 and NGC 1333, where low-mass stars are formed. It is very bright at mid and far-infrared wavelengths and in the submillimeter"
"matter may appear in. In the outer Solar System, hydrogen and helium are referred to as ""gases""; water, methane, and ammonia as ""ices""; and silicates and metals as ""rock"". Because Uranus and Neptune are primarily composed of, in this terminology, ices, not gas, they are increasingly referred to as ice giants and separated from the gas giants. Gas giants can, theoretically, be divided into five distinct classes according to their modeled physical atmospheric properties, and hence their appearance: ammonia clouds (I), water clouds (II), cloudless (III), alkali-metal clouds (IV), and silicate clouds (V). Jupiter and Saturn are both class I."
"of cosmic dust that scatter visible light. Observations in infrared allow the study of objects and regions of space which would be obscured by gas and dust in the visible spectrum, such as the molecular clouds where stars are born, the circumstellar disks that give rise to planets, and the cores of active galaxies. Relatively cool objects (temperatures less than several thousand degrees) emit their radiation primarily in the infrared, as described by Planck's law. As a result, most objects that are cooler than stars are better studied in the infrared. This includes the clouds of the interstellar medium, brown"
"shared equally – according to Bart: In the 1940s, Bok first observed small, dark clouds of dense cosmic dust and gas which would later become known as ""Bok globules"" in the Milky Way. In a paper published in 1947, Bok and E.F. Reilly hypothesized that these clouds were ""similar to insect's cocoons"" that were undergoing gravitational collapse to form new stars and star clusters. This hypothesis was difficult to verify due to the observational difficulties of establishing what was happening inside a dense dark cloud that obscured all visible light emitted from within it, but after Bok's death his ideas"
"Fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of minute water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Although it has no Latin name, fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud, usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influenced by nearby bodies of water, topography, and wind conditions. In turn, fog has affected many human activities, such as shipping, travel, and warfare. The term ""fog"" is typically distinguished from the more generic term ""cloud"" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated locally (such as from a"
"Interplanetary dust cloud The interplanetary dust cloud, or zodiacal cloud, consists of cosmic dust (small particles floating in outer space) that pervades the space between planets within planetary systems such as the Solar System. This system of particles has been studied for many years in order to understand its nature, origin, and relationship to larger bodies. In our Solar System, the interplanetary dust particles have a role in scattering sunlight and in emitting thermal radiation, which is the most prominent feature of the night sky's radiation with wavelengths ranging 5–50 μm. The particle sizes of grains characterizing the infrared emission"
"dust detectors are flying on the ""Ulysses"", ""Cassini"", Proba, ""Rosetta"", ""Stardust"", and the ""New Horizons"" spacecraft. The collected dust at Earth or collected further in space and returned by sample-return space missions is then analyzed by dust scientists in their respective laboratories all over the world. One large storage facility for cosmic dust exists at the NASA Houston JSC. Infrared light can penetrate cosmic dust clouds, allowing us to peer into regions of star formation and the centers of galaxies. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is the largest infrared telescope yet launched into space. It was carried by a Delta rocket"
"either inside of a cloud of cold (~ 15 K) dust or the cloud is in front of it from the Earth's perspective. Molecular gas in the vicinity is rich in nitrogen relative to oxygen. The distance to CK Vulpeculae cannot be determined accurately. Assumptions about its maximum possible luminosity and a position beyond known nebulosity give a distance of . Measurements of the expansion of the nebulosity assumed to have been produced in 1670 give a distance of . There are gas clouds at 500 pc and 2 kpc, but only the first is detected in the spectrum of"
"Perseus molecular cloud The Perseus molecular cloud (Per MCld) is a nearby (600 ly) giant molecular cloud in the constellation of Perseus and contains over 10,000 solar masses of gas and dust covering an area of 6 by 2 degrees. Unlike the Orion molecular cloud it is almost invisible apart from two clusters, IC 348 and NGC 1333, where low-mass stars are formed. It is very bright at mid and far-infrared wavelengths and in the submillimeter originating in dust heated by the newly formed low-mass stars. It shows a curious ring structure in maps made by the IRAS and MSX"
"400–450 light years distant in the ρ Ophiuchi cloud complex. A more compact site of star formation is the opaque clouds of dense gas and dust known as Bok globules, so named after the astronomer Bart Bok. These can form in association with collapsing molecular clouds or possibly independently. The Bok globules are typically up to a light year across and contain a few solar masses. They can be observed as dark clouds silhouetted against bright emission nebulae or background stars. Over half the known Bok globules have been found to contain newly forming stars. An interstellar cloud of gas"
"the popular term prevails. Dark Doodad Nebula The Dark Doodad Nebula is a dark nebula located near the globular cluster NGC 4372, having a length of nearly three degrees of arc. NGC 4372 ""is partially obscured by dust lanes, but still appears as a large object some 10 arcseconds in diameter,"" according to ""Astronomy of the Milky Way"" (2004). Although officially unnamed, this long molecular cloud has come to be known under this name. It can be found in the southern constellation of Musca (the Fly) with strong binoculars. This cloud consists of regions of dense gas and dust, and"
"""Pioneer 10"", ""Pioneer 11"", ""Ulysses"" (heliocentric orbit out to the distance of Jupiter), ""Galileo"" (Jupiter Orbiter), ""Cassini"" (Saturn orbiter), and ""New Horizons"" (see Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter). Interplanetary dust cloud The interplanetary dust cloud, or zodiacal cloud, consists of cosmic dust (small particles floating in outer space) that pervades the space between planets within planetary systems such as the Solar System. This system of particles has been studied for many years in order to understand its nature, origin, and relationship to larger bodies. In our Solar System, the interplanetary dust particles have a role in scattering sunlight and in"
"astronomy. Dark clouds appear so because of sub-micrometre-sized dust particles, coated with frozen carbon monoxide and nitrogen, which effectively block the passage of light at visible wavelengths. Also present are molecular hydrogen, atomic helium, CO (CO with oxygen as the O isotope), CS, NH (ammonia), HCO (formaldehyde), c-CH (cyclopropenylidene) and a molecular ion NH (diazenylium), all of which are relatively transparent. These clouds are the spawning grounds of stars and planets, and understanding their development is essential to understanding star formation. The form of such dark clouds is very irregular: they have no clearly defined outer boundaries and sometimes take"
"cloud chamber, but in this case the ambient electric fields are high enough to precipitate full-scale gas breakdown in the form of sparks at the position of the initial ionization. The presence and location of these sparks is then registered electrically, and the information is stored for later analysis, such as by a digital computer. Similar condensation effects can be observed as Wilson clouds, also called condensation clouds, at large explosions in humid air and other Prandtl–Glauert singularity effects. Cloud chamber A cloud chamber, also known as a Wilson cloud chamber, is a particle detector used for visualizing the passage"
"clouds, occur in the Earth's atmosphere at high altitudes of roughly above the surface, far higher than other clouds. The AIM mission will help determine what factors — temperature, water vapor, and dust particles — lead to the formation of these clouds. The clouds seem to be a relatively recent phenomenon: they were first seen in 1885, and lately seem to be occurring more frequently. The clouds always occur during the summer season near the poles and the Northern season always starts around the same time. Scientists have found that the start of the Southern season can vary up to"
"horizon, the Milky Way, a band of what looks like white dust, can be seen. The Magellanic Clouds of the southern sky are easily mistaken to be Earth-based clouds (hence the name) but are in fact collections of stars found outside the Milky Way known as dwarf galaxies. Zodiacal light is a glow that appears near the points where the sun rises and sets, and is caused by sunlight interacting with interplanetary dust. Shortly after sunset and before sunrise, artificial satellites often look like stars—similar in brightness and size—but move relatively quickly. Those that fly in low Earth orbit cross"
"Cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of minute liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body. Water or various other chemicals may compose the droplets and crystals. On Earth, clouds are formed as a result of saturation of the air when it is cooled to its dew point, or when it gains sufficient moisture (usually in the form of water vapor) from an adjacent source to raise the dew point to the ambient temperature. They are seen in the Earth's homosphere (which includes the troposphere, stratosphere,"
"Noctilucent cloud Noctilucent clouds, or night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth. They consist of ice crystals and are only visible during astronomical twilight. ""Noctilucent"" roughly means ""night shining"" in Latin. They are most often observed during the summer months from latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the Equator. They are visible only during local summer months and when the Sun is below the observer's horizon, but while the clouds are still in sunlight. Recent studies suggests that increased atmospheric methane emissions produce additional water vapor once the methane molecules reach"
"a dense plume of particles. The ash density and constant motion within the volcanic plume produces charge by frictional interactions (triboelectrification), resulting in very powerful and very frequent flashes as the cloud attempts to neutralize itself. Due to the extensive solid material (ash) content, unlike the water rich charge generating zones of a normal thundercloud, it is often called a dirty thunderstorm. Lightning has been observed within the atmospheres of other planets, such as Jupiter and Saturn. Although in the minority on Earth, superbolts appear to be common on Jupiter. Lightning on Venus has been a controversial subject after decades"
"stars. The dust can be detected because it absorbs ordinary starlight and re-emits it as infrared radiation. Even if the dust particles have a total mass well less than that of Earth, they can still have a large enough total surface area that they outshine their parent star in infrared wavelengths. The Hubble Space Telescope is capable of observing dust disks with its NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer) instrument. Even better images have now been taken by its sister instrument, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and by the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory, which can see far deeper"