The Aquila Rift is a long lane of dust that splits the summer Milky Way from Aquila through Serpens to Ophiuchus, a nearby cloud complex where stars are forming.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 907 light-years (278 pc) |
| its light left it | 907 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 75 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Aquila Rift
On a dark night the Milky Way seems to divide in two from Cygnus down towards Sagittarius. That divide, the Great Rift, is not a gap in the stars but dust in front of them, and the Aquila Rift is its section across Aquila, Serpens and Ophiuchus.
The dust belongs to molecular clouds close to the Sun, which block the light of the many stars behind. Within them, the Serpens cloud holds a young embedded cluster, and other dense cores are forming stars of their own, visible in infrared and radio through the dust.
What you see in the piece
Stand on Earth with HUMAN EYE: the Milky Way breaks into two streams where the rift lies. In infrared the dark lane turns into glowing dust.
Questions
How far away is the Aquila Rift?
The Aquila Rift is about 907 light-years (278 pc) from the Sun.
What is the dark line through the Milky Way?
It is dust in nearby clouds such as the Aquila Rift, blocking the light of the stars behind; together they form the Great Rift.