Infrared Dark Clouds
Infrared dark clouds are cold, dense molecular clouds cores seen in
silhouette against the bright diffuse mid-infrared emission of the Galactic
plane.
A particular striking example is G11.11-0.11 seen below in extinction at
8 microns and 2MASS Ks band and in emission at 850 microns.
![MSX 8 micron image of G11.11-0.11](g11_a_th.gif) |
8 micron image of G11.11-0.11 from MSX. It is seen in extinction
against the bright diffuse mid-infrared emission of the Galactic plane.
|
![2MASS K Band image of G11.11-0.11](g11_k_th.gif) |
Ks image of G11.11-0.11 from 2MASS. It is seen in extinction
against the numerous stars in the Galactic plane |
![SCUBA 850 micron image of G11.11-0.11](g11_850_th.gif) |
850 micron image of G11.11-0.11 from SCUBA at the JCMT. The bulk of the
IRDC can be seen as a fainter envelope of emission surrounding some brighter
regions. The bright region in the center of the image contains a suspected
massive class 0 protostar. |
Last Updated : March 20, 2002