The Cosmos with Serpens Nebula

The Serpens Nebula is a reflection nebula that owes most of its sheen to the light emitted by stars like HBC 672.“Two vast cone-like shadows on the Serpens Nebula are cast by the protoplanetary disk surrounding HBC 67,” Hubble team members said.“By clinging tightly to the star the disk creates an imposing shadow, much larger than the disk.” “The disk’s shadow is similar to that produced by a cylindrical lamp shade,” they explained.“Light escapes from the top and bottom of the shade, but along its circumference, dark cones of shadow form.”HBC 67’s protoplanetary disk itself is so small and far away from Earth that not even Hubble can detect it encircling its host star.However, the shadow feature reveals details of the disk’s shape and nature.The presence of a shadow implies that the disk is being viewed nearly edge-on.

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