Why does Barnard 68 appear dark?

I was surfing and looking up pictures and information on the NASA page and I stumbled upon a picture of the Molecular Cloud Barnard 68. Is that dark molecular cloud they were talking about the same as the dark matter I've been reading about on your website?

No, this has nothing to do with dark matter. The picture of Barnard 68 (a dark molecular cloud) is dark because of dust and gas absorbing light from stars behind the cloud at optical wavelengths.

December 2003, Brian Kent (more by Brian Kent)

More questions about Stars: Previous | Next

How to ask a question:

If you have a follow-up question concerning the above subject, submit it here. If you have a question about another area of astronomy, find the topic you're interested in from the archive on our site menu, or go here for help.

URL: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=597
This page has been accessed 27729 times since December 19, 2003.
Last modified: December 19, 2003 1:51:59 PM

Comments? curious@astro.cornell.edu
Legal questions? See our copyright, disclaimer and privacy policy.
Ask an Astronomer is hosted by the Astronomy Department at Cornell University and is produced with PHP and MySQL.