The Astrology of Space - Matrix Software

The Astrology of Space
Interstellar Dust
Interstellar space is not empty, but filled with fine
particles of dust (grains, smoke) and gas often mixed
in clouds. These small grains of matter – clouds of
smoke or dust – have absorbing efficiency and like
cigarette smoke, diffuse or scatter starlight. Few
single clouds absorb more than three magnitudes, but
the accumulation in depth of many individual clouds in
the vast cloud complexes of the "Great Rift" in the
Milky Way can produce, in places, almost total
obscuration. The Coal Sack dark nebula in the south
Milky Way results from a dark cloud some 40 light
years across absorbing somewhat more than one
magnitude. It is located at a distance of some 500
light years from our Sun. Almost all of the gas and
dust is concentrated in the equatorial plane of the
galaxy and our observing situation in the Milky Way
(in optical wavelengths) is similar to that of an edgeon
external galaxy.
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