Dark Cloud

Ominously foreshadowing events to come, a dark cloud of obscuring dust stands out against a luminous star field in the Milky Way . Cataloged as Feitzinger and Stuwe object “1-457” this fuliginous interstellar nebula is relatively close - possibly only 1,000 light-years distant. Near its core it is dense enough to block almost all of the light from the numerous, more distant stars visible toward the galactic center region . In addition to dust grains , dark nebulae which abound in the plane of our Galaxy are likely to contain interstellar gas and represent potential raw material for future star formation.