Journey to Circinus West Molecular Cloud | Victor Blanco Telescope

Journey to Circinus West Molecular Cloud | Victor Blanco Telescope

A celestial shadow known as the Circinus West molecular cloud creeps across this image taken with the Department of Energy-fabricated 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam)—one of the most powerful digital cameras in the world. Within this stellar nursery's opaque boundaries, infant stars ignite from cold, dense gas and dust, while outflows hurtle leftover material into space. It is located about 2,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Circinus. It stretches 180 light-years across and boasts a mass 250,000 times that of the Sun.

This winding, shadowy form, accentuated by a densely-packed starry background, is the Circinus West molecular cloud—a region rich in gas and dust and known for its host of newly formed stars. Molecular Clouds, the cradles of star formation, are interstellar clouds that are so dense and cold that atoms within them bond with each other to form molecules. Circinus West, for example, is so dense that light cannot pass through, giving it a dark, mottled appearance, earning its designation as a dark nebula. The cloud’s flourishing population of young stars offers astronomers insight into the processes driving star formation and molecular cloud evolution.

Another signpost of star formation is the presence of Herbig-Haro (HH) objects. HH objects are glowing red patches of nebulosity commonly found near newborn stars. They form when fast-moving gas thrown out by stars smashes into slower-moving gas in the surrounding molecular cloud or interstellar medium. Visually scanning Circinus West will reveal countless HH objects. 

DECam is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab.

Dark Energy Camera (DECam)

https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/victor-blanco-4m-telescope/decam/

Learn about the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:

https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope

Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA/N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab)
Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Kosari (NSF NOIRLab)

Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: April 24, 2025

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