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Lagoon Nebula

Emission nebula in Sagittarius From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lagoon Nebula
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The Lagoon Nebula (catalogued as Messier 8 or M8, NGC 6523, Sharpless 25, RCW 146, and Gum 72) is a giant emission nebula with an H II region located in the constellation Sagittarius. Discovered by Giovanni Hodierna in 1654, it is one of only two star-forming nebulae faintly visible to the naked eye from mid-northern latitudes[6][7] (the other being the Orion Nebula).

Quick Facts Emission nebula, Observation data: J2000 epoch ...
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Characteristics

Located approximately 4,000–6,000 light-years from Earth, the nebula spans 110 by 50 light-years (appearing as 90' by 40' in Earth's sky). While appearing pink in long-exposure photographs, it typically appears gray when viewed through binoculars or telescopes due to the human eye's limited color sensitivity in low-light conditions. The nebula contains the young open cluster NGC 6530 within its structure.[8]

The Lagoon Nebula features several distinctive structures, including:

Observations in 2006 revealed four Herbig–Haro objects within the Hourglass structure, providing direct evidence of ongoing star formation through accretion processes.[3]

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See also

Notes

  1. The bluish-pink nebula on the upper right is the Trifid Nebula.

References

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