Astrophoto of the month - December 2022 - Bok globules in IC1848

IC 1848

The embryo-shaped nebula, well-known to astrophotographers, is located in the Milky Way, in its Perseus arm, 7,500 light-years away from the Solar System. Home to many nascent and young stars as most large galactic HII zones in the Milky Way. It can be easily observed from Hungary in autumn and winter in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Don't look for the embryo!

In Bence Tóth's shot, we do not find the shape of the embryo, because it is a high-resolution detailed image that only depicts the western part of the entire nebula in an excellent composition. The essence of the recording is now not the whole, but the part: small details can be observed that were not really seen in previous astrophotos.

Bok globules

The interesting part of the capture is that we can discover Bok globules on it in the depths of the nebulosity. Bok globules are clumps of interstellar matter that are denser than their surroundings, inside of which the formation of stars and planets can start if the density in their core reaches a critical level. In such cases, professional astronomers can observe these star formations with large telescopes in the infrared part of the spectrum.