Barnard 168
| Dark fog, molecular cloud | |
|---|---|
| Barnard 168 | |
|
|
| Barnard 168 and the Cocoon Nebula . | |
| Constellation | swan |
|
Position equinox : J2000.0 |
|
| Right ascension | 21h 53m 20s |
| declination | + 47 ° 16 ′ |
| Further data | |
| distance |
500 light years |
| Affiliation | |
| Dimensions | M ─ |
| history | |
| discovery | |
| Catalog names | |
| Barnard 168 | |
| Aladin previewer | |
Barnard 168 is a dark cloud or a Bok globule , a spatially limited part of a molecular cloud in which star formation can take place. It is located in the constellation Swan and is about 500 light years from the solar system. The slightly lighter nebula is the cocoon nebula and is directly connected to the dark cloud. The mass of the dark cloud is approximately 2,500 solar masses .
The catalog name of the dark cloud goes back to the fact that the astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard included it in 1919 in his catalog of dark nebulae, published in 1927 and comprising 350 objects.