How far away is NGC 6231? Based on that image with both in the FOV, it's got to be several tens of lightyears, right? Is that really near enough to the "dark tower" to be able to do all that sculpting?Wow, today's APOD is a superb image!![:D]( "Very Happy")
DarkTowerCDK700-Selby1024[1].jpgThe Dark Tower in Scorpius
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby
Note all the individual little dusty spurs on the outside of the Dark Tower. Note the embedded stars. And note the glow of red hydrogen alpha following the outline of the Tower, but glowing particularly bright near the top of it.
The Dark Tower is being sculpted (and broken down) by the relentless harsh radiation from the massive open cluster NGC 6231:
Credit: Gerald Rhemann.
Ann
EDIT: apparently, and surprisingly - to me! - even at the estimated 100 ly distance, it CAN! From http://annesastronomynews.com/photo-gal ... n-goldman/
The Dark Tower is an elongated dark cloud of dust and gas of about 40 light-years across, located some 5,000 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Scorpius.
Silhouetted against a crowded star field, the Dark Tower is known as a cometary globule – an isolated, relatively small cloud of gas and dust within the Milky Way – which is extending from the lower right to the top of the tower, left and above center of the image. Probably, clumps of dust and molecular gas are collapsing to form stars within this dark nebula.
Its swept-back shape is sculpted by the intense ultraviolet radiation from very hot stars in NGC 6231, which lies about 100 light-years away from the Dark Tower (off the upper edge of the image). The direction of the radiation source can be seen from the flow pattern in the dark cloud.
Statistics: Posted by johnnydeep — Thu Aug 22, 2024 6:05 pm — Replies 3 — Views 265