Astronomy Picture of the Day—20190203

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2019 February 3

LDN1622: Dark Nebula in Orion

ImageCredit & Copyright: Tapio Lahtinen

Explanation:The silhouette of an intriguing dark nebula inhabits this cosmic scene. Lynds'Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears against a faint background of glowing hydrogengas only easily seen in long telescopic exposures of the region. LDN 1622 liesnear the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, close on the sky to Barnard's Loop, alarge cloud surrounding the rich complex of emission nebulae found in the Beltand Sword of Orion. But the obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought to be muchcloser than Orion's more famous nebulae, perhaps only 500 light-years away. Atthat distance, this 1 degree wide field of view would span less than 10light-years. Its foreboding appearance lends this dark expanse a popular name,the Boogeyman Nebula.