Explanation: If Scorpius looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better.
Scorpius more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well known but rarely pointed out zodiacal constellation.
To get a spectacular image like this, though, one needs a good camera, color filters, and a digital image processor.
To bring out detail, the above image not only involved long duration exposures taken in several colors, but one exposure in a very specific red color emitted by hydrogen that brings out great detail.