The Chamaeleon Cloud is a dark cloud near the south celestial pole, one of the closest regions where low-mass stars are being born today.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 620 light-years (190 pc) |
| its light left it | 620 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 52 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 Chamaeleon Cloud
The Chamaeleon clouds sit far below the plane of the Milky Way on the sky, in the faint constellation Chamaeleon. They are usually divided into three main clouds, known as Chamaeleon I, II and III. The first is the most active, with a young population of stars and small reflection nebulae lit from within; the last shows little or no sign of forming stars.
Because they are so close and lie away from the crowded plane, the clouds are an easy place to count young stars, follow their discs and compare clouds at different stages. The piece also has an entry for the Chamaeleon Complex; together they describe the same family of clouds.
What you see in the piece
From Earth it is a dark patch in a thin part of the southern sky; in infrared the dust glows and its young stars appear.
Questions
How far away is the Chamaeleon Cloud?
The Chamaeleon Cloud is about 620 light-years (190 pc) from the Sun.
Can you see the Chamaeleon Cloud?
Only from the southern hemisphere, and only as a darkening of the background with long-exposure photographs; its young stars show best in infrared.