although the star itself is often neglected. (Note that stars in a constellation are named in order of brightness according to the Greek alphabet.) The Rho Oph molecular cloud complex has been known to exist at least since the 1920s, but in the early days of its discovery optical observations could not penetrate the cloud. Not until the 1970s, with the development of infrared and x-ray astronomy, could this region be studied. Radio observations allowed astronomers to map the gas in the region and also detected a few of the many protostars in the cloud. The combination of these methods has brought astronomers closer than ever to understanding the complex processes behind star formation: optical observations examine young
