blocking the view of more distant stars. If there were no dust in our galaxy, the Milky Way would be a brilliant spectacle many times brighter than it now appears.
Maffei 2 happens to lie behind one such cloud. The dust blocks most of its light, leaving a dim, reddish image. The effect is not unlike that of the setting Sun, which grows dimmer and redder as its light passes through more and more dust in the EarthΓÇÖs atmosphere.
Fortunately for astronomers, dust does not interfere with all forms of light. The tiny dust particles block light with wavelengths smaller than themselves, but longer wavelength radiation, such as infrared light, is less affected; very long wavelengths, like microwave
