The Dark Tower in Scorpius (Rodney Watters)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Scorpius (Sco)

The Dark Tower in Scorpius

Cometary Globules are fascinating objects that come in many varied shapes and sizes and basically consist of small clouds of dust and gas in the Milky Way. They are so named due to their shape being somewhat similar to comets. This fine example of a cometary globule is located in the constellation of Scorpius (the Archer) approximately 5,000 light years from Earth. The only catalogue reference that I could find in my research for this object is GN 16.43.7.01 from its entry in the "Atlas of Galactic Nebula".

The object is in fact a dark nebula or a dense cloud of dust and gas that is being shaped by the constant stream of radiation from a nearby star cluster NGC6231 (just outside the field of view of this image). The object spans an area of space approximately 40 light years across. The shape of the nebula at the 'pointy end' is quite distinct with what appears to be cascading levels of shock fronts forming at the head of the dark nebula, no doubt under the influence of the radiation from the nearby star cluster. I was unable to find any specific literature that discusses these shock fronts or provides any theoretical basis for their formation.

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