L1014 is a

dark nebula A dark nebula or absorption nebula is a type of interstellar cloud, particularly molecular clouds, that is so dense that it obscures the visible wavelengths of light from objects behind it, such as background stars and emission or reflection nebu ...

in the Cygnus

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

. It may be among the most centrally condensed small dark clouds known, perhaps indicative of the earliest stages of

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

processes. This cloud harbors at its core a very young low-mass

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

named

L1014 IRS L1, L01, L.1, L 1 or L-1 may refer to: Mathematics, science and technology Math *L1 distance in mathematics, used in taxicab geometry * L1, the space of Lebesgue integrable functions * ℓ1, the space of absolutely convergent sequences Sci ...

; some astronomers have suggested that this object may be a

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most ...

or even a rogue planet at the earliest stage of its lifetime.

References

External links

The Starless Core That Isn't
// Spitzer Image, Release Date: 11/09/04

// NASA 11.09.04 Cygnus (constellation) Dark nebulae {{nebula-stub