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.
The Dark Tower – GN 16.43.7