APOD: The Lagoon Nebula without Stars (2022 Aug 08)

[APOD Robot]

The Lagoon Nebula without Stars

Explanation: Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula. Also known as M8, the bright star forming region is about 5,000 light-years distant. But it still makes for a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius, toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Dominated by the telltale red emission of ionized hydrogen atoms recombining with stripped electrons, this stunning, deep view of the Lagoon is nearly 100 light-years across. Right of center, the bright, compact, hourglass shape is gas ionized and sculpted by energetic radiation and extreme stellar winds from a massive young star. In fact, although digitally removed from the featured image, the many bright stars of open cluster NGC 6530 drift within the nebula, just formed in the Lagoon several million years ago.

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[Ann]

The Lagoon Nebula without Stars. Image Credit & Copyright: Sameer Dhar.

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What's that in the APOD? Those black and white scraggly things look like some kind of light-year-sized insects clinging to the curved "sandy reef" bordering the central lagoon itself!

Water striders swimming (and mating) in the lagoon. Photo: Charles J. Sharp.

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Starbirth in the Lagoon. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

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Maybe those things are cosmic water striders swimming and mating in the Lagoon, even if we find them stranded on a reef?

Well, when creatures mate we expect babies, and there appear to be quite a lot of baby stars right where we find the "insects"! Look at all those pink "eggs"!

NASA wrote:

Known as NGC 6523 or the Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8 is a giant cloud of gas and dust where stars are born. At about 4,000 light years from Earth, Messier 8 provides astronomers an excellent opportunity to study the properties of very young stars. Many infant stars give off copious amounts of high-energy light including X-rays, which are seen in the Chandra data (pink). The X-ray data have been combined with an optical image of Messier 8 from the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center in Arizona (blue and white).

Ann

[MadCat-75]

Looks like the Mutara Nebula from Star Trek II xD

[De58te]

Puzzling. If this 100 light year wide nebula is a bright star forming region but as yet no stars have formed, wouldn't that really be astronomically rare in the universe? And if there are no bright stars within 100 light years, what is causing the central region to glow blue?

[Tszabeau]

Like going to Grauman’s Chinese Theater at 3:00am.

[rstevenson]

Puzzling. If this 100 light year wide nebula is a bright star forming region but as yet no stars have formed, wouldn't that really be astronomically rare in the universe? And if there are no bright stars within 100 light years, what is causing the central region to glow blue?

As the description says, the stars were digitally removed. It certainly makes for an odd image, but it visually clarifies the gas and dust flows. I’m about to search here for an M8 nebula that shows the stars so I can view them side by side.

[a few minutes later] Have a look at this one… https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161214.html

Rob

[orin stepanek]

With or without stars; Lagoon is just beautiful!
Any Idea of What I circled? Planets or stars?

don't ask me; I have no Idea! I

[Locutus76]

Looks like the Mutara Nebula from Star Trek II xD

I sure hope the Reliant isn’t lurking inside!

[Astronymus]

Looks like the Mutara Nebula from Star Trek II xD

I sure hope the Reliant isn’t lurking inside!

[johnnydeep]

As usual, I'm having trouble orienting this APOD pic to match the one from the M8 link in the description. Is that band of dark dust bisecting the bright area common to both images? Am I close?

[Ann]

As usual, I'm having trouble orienting this APOD pic to match the one from the M8 link in the description. Is that band of dark dust bisecting the bright area common to both images? Am I close?

You are way off, I'm afraid.

The inner Lagoon Nebula. Note the long curved 'reef' on the left, and the small bright hourglass shape surrounded by much smaller dust lanes at right. Image: NGC 1535.

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The picture on the left shows the long curved 'reef' and the picture on the right shows the small central hourglass shape surrounded by much smaller dust lanes.

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Ann

[johnnydeep]

As usual, I'm having trouble orienting this APOD pic to match the one from the M8 link in the description. Is that band of dark dust bisecting the bright area common to both images? Am I close?

You are way off, I'm afraid.

The inner Lagoon Nebula. Note the long curved 'reef' on the left, and the small bright hourglass shape surrounded by much smaller dust lanes at right. Image: NGC 1535.

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The picture on the left shows the long curved 'reef' and the picture on the right shows the small central hourglass shape surrounded by much smaller dust lanes.

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Ann

Ah, thanks - "missed it by that much." And it was "just a simple matter of scale." So, today's APOD shows a much zoomed out view and that centrally located "hourglass" is tiny and really not visible at all, unlike in your much more detailed pic, whose scale better matches the APOD, but in which that tiny hourglass IS visible if you zoom in.

[Ann]

The Lagoon Nebula in Hα and OIII. Photo: Clark Batalcos.

The Lagoon Nebula without Stars Image Credit & Copyright: Sameer Dhar.

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I found the picture at right at Astronomy.com and thought it was interesting as a comparison with the APOD. Note that we see more of the Lagoon Nebula in Clark Batalcos' image than we do in the APOD.

Ann

[johnnydeep]

Lagoon Nebula HOO Clark Bacaltos.png

The Lagoon Nebula in Hα and OIII. Photo: Clark Batalcos.

The Lagoon Nebula without Stars Image Credit & Copyright: Sameer Dhar.

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I found the picture at right at Astronomy.com and thought it was interesting as a comparison with the APOD. Note that we see more of the Lagoon Nebula in Clark Batalcos' image than we do in the APOD.

Ann

And in that one, you have to rotate the Clark Batalcos photo 90 degrees counter clockwise to match the APOD orientation. <sigh>