From the 2Mass Image Gallery
This is a dark, obscuring cloud of dust near the Galactic Plane (the cloud is at RA = 17h 35m 46.84s, Dec =-25d 33m 10.8s, J2000. The cloud is the entry 1-457 in the catalog by Feitzinger & Stuwe (1984, A&AS, 58, 365) of dark nebulae. Based on the (J-H, H-Ks) color-color diagram, the extinction toward the center of the cloud is more than 20 mag. in the visible.
The images are three-band composites constructed from 2MASS Atlas Images. They are infrared images and therefore must be mapped into false colors: J light (1.2 µm) into blue, H light (1.6 µm) in green, and Ks light (2.2 µm) into red. The Atlas Images are produced in the 2MASS Production Processing System. North is up and east is to the left.The text is based on accompanying on-line materials.
Last modified on Sunday, December 17, 2000