(star-forming filament found in the Orion star-forming region)
Nessie is a colloquial name for a long, filament-shaped infrared dark cloud
within the Orionstar-forming region.
Nessie appears to lie in the Scutum-Centaurus Arm,
possibly being the "middle" of the arm. If so,
its distance is about 3.1 kpc, its width is on
the order of 0.5 pc, and its length depends upon
interpretation of the data, early thought
making it 80 pc, later 160 pc or possibly 430 pc.