On the left is a visible light image of the molecular cloud Barnard 68. Dust in the cloud completely obscures stars located within and behind the cloud, and no stars are even visible in front of the cloud, suggesting that it must be unusually close. On the right is a slightly closer look at the same region using infrared wavelengths, which are not absorbed as much as visible light. (Left (visible light) image: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT Antu, ESO, apod060409; Right (infrared) image: ESO, SOFI)

     Although absorption nebulae are usually seen as dark, obscuring clouds, space-based infrared observations can show them in a completely different way. This false-color composite of far infrared radiation in the southern Milky Way (near the Southern Cross) shows otherwise invisible radiation emitted by cold (approximately 10 Kelvin, or 440 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) and warmer clouds of gas and dust, which are collapsing in complex, stringlike networks to form new stars. (ESA, SPIRE & PACS Consortia, apod091016)