Globules

small, dark formations within light nebulas and sometimes visible against the background of the Milky Way. They were discovered by the American astronomers B. Dzh. Bock and E. F. Riley in 1947.

Globules are dense masses of gas and dust ranging in size from 0.01 to 0.5 parsecs. In compact globules the mass of the dust is usually no greater than 0.001-0.01 times the mass of the sun, but the total mass may be as high as the mass of the sun. The mass of less compact large globules may be 2 to 10 solar masses or more. The gas in a globule is compressed by the pressure of the surrounding hot gas of the nebula, but because of the low weight of globules, stars may apparently be formed from them only in exceptional cases.