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Messier 8 - the Lagoon Nebula |
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Object description:
The Lagoon Nebula M 8 is located in the constellation
of Sagittarius, about 1.5 degrees south of the Trifid Nebula. The distance to M
8 is about 4000 lightyears and the nebula covers an area as large as the Moon
in the sky. In the left half of the image you can see the open cluster NGC
6530, whose stars were formed from the nebula about 2.3 million years ago. The
brightest area of the nebula is also known as the Hourglass nebula and is
stimulated to glow by an active star formation region around the star Herschel
36.
The seeing at imaging time was about 3.0'' (FWHM). A great image of
the Hourglass nebula was taken with the Hubble telescope and
can
be found here. For the size comparison with the Moon please move your mouse
over the image. |
« Click here or the thumbnail image for a comparison with the
size of the Moon |
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References: Arias et al. (2006):
The infrared Hourglass cluster in M8, Mon. Not. R. Astron.
Soc., 366, 739, DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09829.x Prisinzano et al. (2005):
The star formation region NGC 6530: Distance, ages and
initial mass function, Astron. Astrophys., 430, 941, DOI:
10.1051/0004-6361:20040432 |
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