August 28, 2014
If the universe seems cold from a distance, birthdays are part of its rebuttal.
Messier 20 and 21
Birthday · August 28, 2014
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
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APOD published August 28, 2014. Credit: Lorand Fenyes. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the colorful study in cosmic contrasts shares this well-composed, nearly 1 degree wide field with open star cluster Messier 21 (top right). Trisected by dust lanes the Trifid itself is about 40 light-years across and a mere 300,000 years old. That makes it one of the youngest star forming regions in our sky, with newborn and embryonic stars embedded in its natal dust and gas clouds. Estimates of the distance to open star cluster M21 are similar to M20's, but though they share this gorgeous telescopic skyscape there is no apparent connection between the two. In fact, M21's stars are much older, about 8 million years old.
Image credit: Lorand Fenyes