Like a giant sandworm, this enormous stream of interstellar gas and dust winds its way through the sea of stars. My image shows a small section of a vast cloud that meanders across the southern sky. MW9, the Southern Celestial Serpent. A cloud in the Milky Way that is not illuminated by a single star, but glows with the combined light of all the stars in the Milky Way. Hidden behind it are various galaxies. About 100 million light-years away lies the striking spiral galaxy IC 4633, which sits atop the cloud like an eye. It is visible almost edge-on and consists of many tightly coiled spiral arms. On the left side, star-forming regions glow, while the right side and part of the center are obscured by the dust cloud.
A Sandworm in the Southern Celestial Serpent MW9