Astronomy Picture of the Day

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Dark Dust and Colorful Clouds near Antares." Antares is found in the constellation Scorpius (Scorpio), but the clouds shown here require a bit more than the human eye to see. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block starlight and so appear dark. Antares lights up the yellow-red clouds on the lower left. Rho Ophiuchi, a multiple star system in the constellation Ophiuchus, lies at the center of the blue nebula near the top. The distant globular cluster M4 is visible to the right of Antares. Quite the summertime show, don't you think?