The Dark Tower in Scorpius 4.6

This week, I chose to do the picture of the column of dust and gas in the constellation Scorpius. This 40 light year structure could possibly contain zones of star formation. This cometary globule is shaped by the UV radiation from the very hot stars in NGC6231. Within the dust, hot stars can be seen as small bluish reflection nebulae. All of these structures are approximately 5000 light years away.