APOD: 2022 October 29 - LDN 673: Dark Clouds in Aquila

Good morning, Rallypoint, and welcome to the October 29th edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "LDN 673: Dark Clouds in Aquila." LDN stands for 'Lynd's Dark Nebula.' In 1962, American astronomer Beverly Turner Lynd published a catalog of dark nebulae documented by photographs taken at the Palomar Observatory in California. A 'dark nebula' obscures light from the red and blue spectra, making it appear 'visible' on the image. This picture of LDN 673 first appeared as an APOD in 2012, and is only 600 light years from Earth in the constellation Aquila (The Eagle).

If you look just to the right of center (at about 2:30 o'clock), you'll can pick out a red star that looks like it has a skirt on it. Scientists believe that is a young star forming within LDN 673, and the 'skirt' is the Herbig-Haro object associated with the star. A closer look by an infrared telescope (such as the Webb) may reveal others.