To me, images of nebulae and colorful cloud complexes can truly augment one's understanding of how vast and fantastic the universe is. I learned that this cloud complex contains more than 3,000 times the amount of mass as the sun. It is nearly impossible to reach an understanding of that amount of material somewhere in the sky. I was attracted to this picture because one of this week's constellations, Scorpius, contains the star Antares which appears in picture as the bright orange-ish star in the lower center. Furthermore, the colors in this nebula are more than the human eye can even perceive. The many processes occuring in this mass make the sky a bright concentration of amazing colors. Dust, lit up by starlight, causes a blue reflection, while gaseous clouds with ultraviolet rays from stars create the redder colors.
