The Lupus Clouds are a scattered complex of dark molecular clouds in Lupus and Scorpius, a nearby nursery of small stars on the edge of the Sco–Cen association.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 780 light-years (239 pc) |
| its light left it | 780 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 320 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 Lupus Clouds
Taken as a whole, the Lupus complex is a loose chain of separate dark clouds rather than one body, spread over a wide stretch of the southern sky. Only some of them are actively forming stars; the rest are cold, dark and quiet.
Where stars do form, they are low-mass: T Tauri stars and protostars, many still surrounded by the discs from which planets may form. The clouds lie beside the older, massive stars of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, whose winds and supernovae have swept the space around them. The piece also has a narrower entry, the Lupus Cloud, for the same region.
What you see in the piece
In visible light the clouds show as patches where stars go missing; switch to infrared and the dust lights up.
Measured or modelled
How much the neighbouring massive stars shaped these clouds or set off their star formation is a model, not a measurement. The extent shown in the piece is modelled.
Questions
How far away are the Lupus Clouds?
The Lupus Clouds are about 780 light-years (239 pc) from the Sun.
Are stars forming in the Lupus Clouds?
Yes, in some of them: mostly small stars with discs, with no massive stars among them.