This Is Not Your Average ‘Black Hole’
- Posted on January 31, 2012 at 2:17pm by
Liz Klimas
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Image of Barnard 68 viewed through infrared. (Photo: via Daily Mail)
Something is obviously going on in this image. There’s a stark difference between the starry backdrop and the gaping hole in the center.
While you may be quick to define this as a black hole — the literal definition of which would be correct — it’s not a black hole in the “sucks all matter and light into it” sense. The Daily Mail reports that this hole — a dark molecular cloud called Barnard 68 in the constellation Ophiuchus – is composed of matter that prevents any light from going through it.
When viewed through a lens with a different wavelength, you can see some of the stars through Barnard 68 -- notice how they appear to be a different color. (Photo: ESO)
The Daily Mail has more on the cloud:
The interiors of molecular clouds are some of the coldest and most isolated places in the universe.
The bizarre sight is formed due to a high concentration of dust and molecular gas absorbing practically all the visible light emitted from background stars.
Barnard 68 viewed at different wavelengths. (Photo: ESO)
Scientists are unsure why molecular clouds form but do note that they are often where new star systems could form.
According to NASA, Barnard 68 is about 500 light years away.
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Comments (65)
ritamweep
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 11:02pmhttp://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/holy-see-ambassadors-endorse-romney/
Report Post »00gabooga
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 10:23pmObama found a way to tax outer space.
Report Post »SweetDoug
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 11:02amThat’s where all the money is going!!
Nah, that’s the thing from the Star Trek episode, The Immunity Syndrome where the battle the great single cell creature!!!
It’s coming!!
Sorry… I guess I‘ve got to get out of my mother’s basement a little more often, stop reading the Blaze… Maybe try to get a life…
•∆•
Report Post »V-V
Secret Squirrel
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 1:32pm.
Those scientists are all racists.
Always complaining about black holes.
When we gonna get some white holes?
This all started with Bush, hell, he’s the only
Report Post »president to ever lose a planet.
Yep, lost, Pluto under Bush.
The-Monk
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 9:33pmI live my life in widening rings
which spread over earth and sky.
I may not ever complete the last one,
but that is what I will try.
I circle around God’s primordial tower,
Report Post »and I circle ten thousand years long;
And I still don‘t know if I’m a falcon,
a storm, or a… dark molecular cloud.
{ :>)…
The-Monk
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 9:38pmRainer Maria Rilke; 1903, revised.
Report Post »3monkeysmomma
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 9:20pmNewt should build a colony there with federal reserve notes and invite Obama to visit.
Report Post »smokey888x2
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 9:38pmVisit? He’s from there!
Report Post »feret
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 3:18amAre you saying the current administration is a blackhole where all of our money is going and we can find it here?
Report Post »Bigliardi
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:28pm@lesbianpackinghollowpoints….Deep field and Parsecs…?
Report Post »Whiskey-Sierra-Yankee-7th-Calvary
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:13pmoops my finger was on the lens…..
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:31pmIt’s obviously the entrance to an alternate universe……the place where all my missing socks went.
Report Post »TexBork
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 7:59pmIt’s just an irregular black hole from the black hole outlet mall. You can get those off the hangar at the Tanger in San Marcos.
Report Post »bombshelterbob
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:29pmLooks like the breeding ground for socialist intellectuals to me.
Report Post »TexBork
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 9:56pmAh, yeah, that’s Texas State located nearby the mall… Used to be called Southwest Texas State University, but the student body complained that they were too stoned to remember a name that long.
Report Post »Vic Tory
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 7:47pmRomulan Warbird about to de-cloak.
Report Post »3monkeysmomma
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 9:22pmLOL! that was going to be my comment!
Well aren’t we two nerds in a pod?!
Report Post »ConservDadASD
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 9:07amActually it’s one of those space amoebas, like the one that Spock and the Enterprise destroyed.
Report Post »ConservDadASD
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 9:11amIt’s Q trying to play games with us again.
Report Post »godhatesacoward
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 7:30pmSo that’s where all our tax dollars have gone!
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 7:17pmGee, I thougt it was a LIBERAL SUCKING BLACK HOLE
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:48pmIt’s called, and all the astrophysics cognoscenti say it with me now, A NEBULA!
There’s more of these things spread throughout the universe than stars. Granted, this one might be larger than most known and situated where we can watch it do optical tricks, but this is still the newscast equivalent of, “And in other news, here’s a mud puddle.”
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 7:40pmThat is cute! And so true!
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:17pm@Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
In response to your last post to me…. how fitting it would be an article about the Universe!
I had a similar experience (although I dislike the word “experiential”)…..
Report Post »I was outside laying down looking up at the Universe. It was a cloudless night, no humidity and the Stars shone brightly. I could see the Milky Way and thought about where I was in the Universe looking into the Spiral of the Milky Way from its edge. A slight breeze brushed against my face and I starting thinking about the molecules that so gently touched me. There was no separation between the molecules and my skin, then no separation from those molecules and the next molecule and that molecule to the next until all thought stopped and in a timeless instant a very powerful Awareness took me over and there was no separation between me and the Stars. I was standing in a Timeless doorway without any separation between Space and myself. All distance was irrelevant. I took one step past the doorway and there was Nothing, yet Everything, without any separation. The “word” separation was not in my vocabulary; as if I never knew about it. My “mind” had no thought but, my “Mind” was so full of Energy. A Peace that knows no war, a Love that knows no hate, a Being that knows no separation. Then, someone walking by shook my shoulder and asked, “What are you looking at?” Thought returned, I looked at him and said, “Nothing.” Then we went our separate ways…
Miyegombo Bayartsogt
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:39pmA cosmic mud puddle.
Report Post »InversionTheory
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 9:20pmI’m with ya, Lesbian. Of all the interesting things to look at in the sky…A dark nebula that absorbs almost the entire spectrum. Whoopty-do! In other news, after an exhaustive search scientists discover water at the bottom of the ocean.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 10:42am“In other news, water is wet, fire is hot, and Democrats are brain dead. We now send you to our Accuweather reporter Skip Johannson. How’s the weekend shaping up, Skip?”
Report Post »Christhefarmer
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:41pmMan depending on the distance of that cloud in relation to the telescope that thing could be massive.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:49pmI suppose the terms “depth of field” and “seconds of arc” mean nothing to you.
Report Post »SoupSandwich
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:07pmCan you melt ants with those things?
Report Post »Anadara
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:36pmThis space is for rent. Inquire at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:19pmMichelle!!! Long time, no see!!!!
Report Post »Cranky
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:18pmIt‘s what you see when Sheila Jackson Lee’s mouth is wide open spewing nonsense. Really, if you look at it again, you can see it’s her mouth wide open….
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:06pmit looks like an apparition in front of the lens.
Report Post »Jayms
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:15pmHaha, it’s got scientists around the world baffled – and it’s merely a moth on the lens :)
Report Post »DD313
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:04pmMantrid Drones! Who out there remember Lexx? Just watched all episodes on the net, and was particularly struck with the political satire of the last season. The incompetent U.S. President and his airhead wife were a hoot!
Report Post »rotciv
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 6:45pmJust watched LEXX last night. So funny. Really liked the liver connection. And yes, the game is afoot.
Report Post »DD313
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 8:43amAnd those carrot probes, ouch!
Report Post »TheLeftMadeMeRight
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:54pma giant swarm of space locust is more like it…
Report Post »lel2007
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:52pmFor Man’s wonder and delight.
Report Post »matamoros
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:50pm@spyder
silly u, u obviously know nothing! This is the galactic rendezvous for the Bilderberg group to wrest their control over the universe, and all its minions, including God himself.
Report Post »Black Manta
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:43pmRidiculous Spyder…there‘s only one God and that’s YAHWEH….there’s something going on and I know the Lord has something to do with it…God Bless us all
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on February 1, 2012 at 11:33amYea sure, god got bored and made a dark cloud in space.. ridiculous
Report Post »MDDAWG
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:39pmWow! When I first saw the picture, I thought it was an MRI of Obama’s brain, the “black hole” being the “integrity” part of the brain in the frontal lobe.
Report Post »EchoHawk
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:58pmThis just in, the collective consciousness of conservatives has been located residing in the molecular cloud of Barnard 68 some five hundred light years from Earth. Cosmologists fear that the parasitic nature of the molecular cloud will completely annihilate the consciousness because of it’s malignant nature. That is all.
Report Post »JP4JOY
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 7:20pmConversation in the detector room: Dude, really…you can’t just let one of those fly in this small space… oh man my eyes are burning, and it stinks!!!
Report Post »Joshua7
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:37pmI had no idea such things existed. Cool!
Report Post »tazman6986
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:37pmhuh?!
Report Post »Spyder
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 5:30pmIt’s the secret location of “The Lost Planet of the Gods.” Where’s Galactica when you need it?
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