A vast dark cloud acting a stellar nursery, the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud has its most active regions in the northeast of Corona Australis, and spreads eastward from there into neighbouring Sagittarius. As seen from Earth, the entire cloud stretches across a strip of sky nearly seven degrees from end to end. It lies an estimated 430 light years from the Sun, making it one of the closest star-forming regions, and the entire structure extends over a region sixty-six light years across.
This image shows the most active part of the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, which stretches far eastward of this point into the neighbouring constellation of Sagittarius. The brightstar to the east (left) is Gamma Coronae Australis, which lies in the foreground of the cloud as seen from Earth. The swirling blue pattern to the west (right) is the a complex of nebulae including the R Coronae Australis Nebula, a region illuminated by young stars forming within the cloud. Imagery provided by Aladin sky atlas
The cloud contains thousands of protostars and young stars, but its strongest activity is at its western end, where it runs behind the stars Gamma and Epsilon Coronae Australis. Beyond those two stars is a darkened region designated in Bernes 157, but the dark clouds in this area are brightly illuminated in parts by newly-formed stars. Most prominent among these is R Coronae Australis, a star still in the later stages of its formation. This variable illuminates the gases around it, and as its brightness changes, the surrounding R Coronae Australis Nebula also shifts in brightness.
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