The Dark Tower: A mysterious edifice 5000 light-years away from Earth

The European Southern Observatory's Picture of the Week shows the cometary globule GN 16.43.7.01. Unlike their namesake, cometary globules are named for their dusty head and elongated, dark tail, as seen in this image. The globule in question, dubbed the Dark Tower, contains dense clumps of collapsing gas and dust out of which stars will be born.

Located approximately 5,000 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation Scorpius, this intriguing object was captured in stunning detail by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile

The peculiar shape of cometary globule GN 16.43.7.01 is carved out from an intense bombardment of radiation from a cluster of young, bright stars situated outside the frame to the upper-left. This radiation has swept around and outlined the cometary globule with the characteristic pink glow of hot, excited matter.

Dubbed the Dark Tower, this is a cometary globule, which actually has nothing to do with comets aside from appearance: they are named for their dusty head and elongated, dark tail. 1/ pic.twitter.com/Vi460F9LZQ

— ESO (@ESO) March 11, 2024

ESO's VLT Observatory aims to discover and study remote Solar System bodies as well as search for extrasolar planet transits. It covers a wide range of wavelengths from ultraviolet through optical to near-infrared.