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Barnard 68 is a starless void in our galaxy darker than the deepest space

At visible wavelengths, Barnard 68 appears as a perfect void: no stars, no light, no hints of what lies behind. But that darkness isn’t empty space. It’s matter — dense, cold, and light-absorbing.

Ivan PetricevicbyIvan Petricevic
January 9, 2019 - Updated on April 17, 2025
in Editor's Picks
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In a night sky full of stars, it’s unsettling to find a place where there seem to be none at all. But that’s exactly what you’ll see if you point a telescope toward a small region of the constellation Ophiuchus. There, like a cosmic blackout, sits Barnard 68 — a dense cloud of dust so thick it blocks the starlight behind it entirely. And while it may look like a hole in space, it’s actually something far stranger.

Barnard 68 is a dark cloud situated at a distance of about 500 light-years (160 pc) towards the southern constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent-holder). This image represents the sky area of the so-called Bok globule Barnard 68 --- nicknamed the Dark Cloud -- imaged in six different wavebands, clockwise from the blue to the near-infrared spectral region. Image ESO.
B68 is a dark cloud situated at a distance of about 500 light-years (160 pc) towards the southern constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent-holder). This image represents the sky area of the so-called Bok globule Barnard 68 — nicknamed the Dark Cloud — imaged in six different wavebands, clockwise from the blue to the near-infrared spectral region. Image ESO.

A dark cloud with no stars behind it

Barnard 68 is what astronomers call a dark absorption nebula, or more specifically, a Bok globule — a tightly packed pocket of interstellar dust and molecular gas. It’s located just 400 light-years from Earth, making it one of the nearest examples of its kind.

At visible wavelengths, Barnard 68 appears as a perfect void: no stars, no light, no hints of what lies behind. But that darkness isn’t empty space. It’s matter — dense, cold, and light-absorbing.

According to NASA, “What used to be considered a hole in the sky is now known to astronomers as a dark molecular cloud. Here, a high concentration of dust and molecular gas absorbs practically all the visible light emitted from background stars.”

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This makes Barnard 68 not just visually eerie, but scientifically unique. It offers astronomers a rare, unobstructed look at the earliest stages of star formation.

Looking into the darkness with infrared light

While Barnard 68 is impenetrable to visible light, it doesn’t stay hidden forever. Using infrared telescopes, scientists have been able to peer through the darkness. Observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile revealed more than 3,700 background stars — previously blocked by the nebula’s dusty curtain — with about 1,000 clearly visible in infrared wavelengths.

These findings confirmed just how dense the cloud really is. With a mass roughly twice that of our Sun and a diameter of about half a light-year, Barnard 68 is massive, but compact. Its edges are sharply defined — a clue that it’s gravitationally bound and likely in a transitional state.

A star waiting to be born

This image shows a colour composite of visible and near-infrared images of the dark cloud Barnard 68 . It was obtained with the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope and the multimode FORS1 instrument in March 1999. At these wavelengths, the small cloud is completely opaque because of the obscuring effect of dust particles in its interior. Image Credit: ESO / Wikimedia Commons.
This image shows a colour composite of visible and near-infrared images of the dark cloud Barnard 68 . It was obtained with the 8.2-m VLT ANTU telescope and the multimode FORS1 instrument in March 1999. At these wavelengths, the small cloud is completely opaque because of the obscuring effect of dust particles in its interior. Image Credit: ESO / Wikimedia Commons.

Barnard 68 isn’t just a passive object. It’s alive, in a way — and its stillness is temporary. Based on its structure and internal conditions, astronomers believe it’s on the verge of collapse. Over the next few hundred thousand years, gravity will likely pull the dust and gas inward until it ignites, forming one or more small stars.

If that happens, this dark nebula will disappear from view — replaced by glowing young stars and surrounded by warm interstellar gas. What looks today like a starless void is, in reality, a stellar nursery, caught in the quiet before birth.

Barnard 68 offers a rare opportunity to study how stars begin — not in bright, explosive events, but in dark, silent clouds, hidden from view. These regions are among the coldest and most isolated environments in the known universe.

What makes Barnard 68 especially compelling is its proximity and clarity. It’s close enough to study in detail, and opaque enough to offer a perfect contrast against the star-filled sky behind it. It reminds us that in space, darkness isn’t always empty — sometimes, it’s just waiting to shine.

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Ivan Petricevic

Ivan Petricevic

I've been writing passionately about ancient civilizations, history, alien life, and various other subjects for more than eight years. You may have seen me appear on Discovery Channel's What On Earth series, History Channel's Ancient Aliens, and Gaia's Ancient Civilizations among others.

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