Fact Sheet
Dark Beauty
Thick clouds of interstellar dust form dark voids in the nebula known as NGC 281 in this recent image from Hubble Space Telescope. The clouds, which are known as Bok globules after the astronomer who first described them, are so thick that they absorb the light from stars or gas clouds behind them. NGC 281 is giving birth to new stars, which form from dense knots of material like these dark globules. [Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team]
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