Astronomers Discover Peculiar 'Tadpole' Cloud With a Mystery Behind It

Around 27,000 light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation, there's a cloud of gas shaped like a tadpole. For now, the cause of its distinctive shape is a mystery, but a team of astronomers has a good guess as to what's going on with its weirdness. It may involve a sneaky black hole.

Japanese researcher Miyuki Kaneko at Keio University led the team that identified the unusual cloud, nicknamed it the "Tadpole" and set about investigating its secrets. They announced the molecular cloud's discovery in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal last month. A molecular cloud is a collection of gas and dust. They're often described as stellar nurseries when they're hosting active star formation.

Astronomers Discover Peculiar 'Tadpole' Cloud With a Mystery Behind It