LDN 43

Explanation from Sakib Rasool

Snaking across the starfields of the constellation Ophiuchus, LDN 43 is an obscure dark nebula and star forming region that contains the embedded reflection nebulae RNO 90 and RNO 91, which are illuminated by young stellar objects (YSO).

LDN 43 has received lots of attention from professional astronomers seeking to understand the mysteries of star formation. It is one of the closest star forming regions with a distance of slightly more than 500 light years.

The area around it suffers from a high degree of dust extinction. This is best illustrated by the interstellar reddening of the majority of the stars in this image as well a few distant background galaxies. Any light traveling from these sources passes through this veil of dust, which absorbs the blue light making everything appear more red than it actually is. Interstellar dust extinction is prevalent in many parts of the Milky Way and many galaxies would shine more brightly if not for this intervening dust.

Observations with radio telescopes have uncovered multiple molecular outflows in the vicinity of RNO 91, which are an indicator of the energetic activity of nascent YSO's. The outflows have carved out a cavity in the surrounding dark cloud, which is illuminated by the source of RNO 91, a type of YSO known as a T Tauri star. This is known to be encircled by a protoplanetary disk, which is a solar system in the making.

See a Hubble closeup of RNO 91 here: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1331a/

Taken with a  Planewave 17" f6.7 on a Planewave HD Mount and a SBIG 16803 camera. Imaged from "Dark Sky New Mexico" in Animas.

LRGB- 240 each