Sunday, Jun 1, 2025

IC 4592 is a beautiful reflection nebula in the constellation Scorpius. It is very close to the brighter, larger, and more colorful Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex. Reflection nebulae are actually made of very fine dust that would normally appear dark but can appear quite blue when it reflects visible light from nearby energetic stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star in the horse's eye. That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brightest star systems in the direction of the constellation of Scorpius. A second reflection nebula named IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars to the right of image center.