Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scorpius (Sco)
The Dark Tower - GN 16.43.7.0, Engelbert Vollmer
The Dark Tower - GN 16.43.7.0
Powered byPixInsight

The Dark Tower - GN 16.43.7.0

The Dark Tower - GN 16.43.7.0, Engelbert Vollmer
The Dark Tower - GN 16.43.7.0
Powered byPixInsight

The Dark Tower - GN 16.43.7.0

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

About 5000 light years away from Earth lies this dusty cosmic cloud  in the constellation of Scorpius. This bizarre, dark structure of gas and dust is called the Dark Tower. It is known as a cometary globule because of its head and elongated tail, but it has absolutely nothing to do with comets. This dark nebula contains dense clumps of molecular gas and dust from which stars are born. Intense UV radiation from a group of stars outside my image forms this nebula and stimulates the hydrogen gas at the edge of the sphere to glow reddish. Hot stars embedded in the dust glow as bluish reflection nebulae.

My image was taken as member of the Carpe Noctem Remote Observatory group of the Volkssternwarte Meckesheim e.V.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

The Dark Tower - GN 16.43.7.0, Engelbert Vollmer