Infrared Cirrus
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Infrared Cirrus

June 4, 2008

We often think of the vast areas of space between the stars as being completely empty. However, this is not really true. Much of the space between the stars is filled with atomic and molecular gas (primarily hydrogen and helium), and tiny pieces of solid particles or dust (composed mainly of carbon, silicon and oxygen).


This image shows cirrus as seen by the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) at 8.28 Âµm. The dying star Eta Carinae is about one-quarter of the way across this image from the left, and about halfway down. This image covers about 5 x 10 degrees in the sky.

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