Some space objects not only emit visible light but also absorb it, creating darkness. These types of shadow areas are called by different names. But professional astronomer Phil Plait prefers to call them Bok globules.
Globs of shit can create stars. They also create only one or two stars at a time, hidden from our eyes in the bottomless depths of dust.
Plait’s favorite object that can be observed through telescopes is Barnard 68, popularly known as B68. This cloud is located approximately 500 light-years from Earth. It is only half a light-year wide and covers an area of approximately five trillion kilometers. Scientists imagine B68 as dark space, devoid of stars.
Why is B68 so dark? In addition to hydrogen, it also contains plenty of carbon. Most of the carbon in B68 is in the form of what astronomers call dust. One of the distinguishing features of dust is its ability to block visible light.
At the same time, there is very little dust in B68. This is less than a million particles per cubic centimeter.
The temperature at the edges of B68 is -256 degrees Celsius. Towards the center, it drops to -265 degrees Celsius. That’s just above absolute zero!
Observations of B68 indicate that this cloud will eventually form a star (or several stars). If this happens, almost all of the remaining matter in the cloud will be carried away by the light of newborn space objects.
Source: Ferra
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