September 16, 2020

The Dark Tower of Scorpius (Sept. 2018)

 


This is the Dark Tower, a cloud of gas and dust from which stars are forming.  Its glow is produced in reaction to ultraviolet radiation from NGC 6231, a cluster of young, bright stars off the screen to the left.  The Dark Tower doesn't really have a catalog designation or number, and it actually stretches a bit further to the left off this image. It's just an unnamed but interesting area of the sky.  The whole complex is perhaps 5,000 light years away.  NGC 6231 and the nebula can be seen (if you can see them) near the first (not the last) sharp curve of the scorpion's tale.

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