The Pipe Nebula: A Young Molecular Cloud Complex

The Pipe Nebula is among the closest molecular clouds to Earth, and one of the few observable with the naked eye. The entire complex has a mass of about 10^4 M_sun and lies at a distance of about 130 pc in the direction of the Galactic center. Only Barnard 59, at the northwestern edge of the complex, is currently known to be forming stars and is associated with several T Tauri stars and deeply embedded YSOs. Although an ideal target for star formation studies, the Pipe Nebula remains until this day a poorly studied complex.