IRAS Image of Rho Ophiuchi

This image shows a dense cloud of interstellar dust known as the Rho Ophiuchi cloud. The cloud glows brightly in the infrared light as numerous new stars forming within the cloud heat the dust which surrounds them. The greenish glow to the lower right of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud comes from dust surrounding and heated by the hot young binary star Sigma Scorpii. The filaments and wisps extending out from these two clouds are due to tenuous interstellar dust concentrations probably associated with the central clouds.