February 10, 2006
On the day you were born, the universe did what it has always done best: transformed chaos into beauty.
M8: The Lagoon Nebula
Birthday · February 10, 2006
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APOD published February 10, 2006. Credit: Processing: Tom Davis, Acquisition: Jim Misti. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
This beautiful cosmic cloud is a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius. Eighteenth century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged the bright nebula as M8, while modern day astronomers recognize the Lagoon Nebula as an active stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years distant, in the direction of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Striking details can be traced through this remarkable picture, processed to reveal the Lagoon's range of filaments of glowing hydrogen gas and dark dust clouds along with the brighter, turbulent hourglass region at the upper right. The view is a color composite of narrow and broad band images recorded under dark skies in northwestern Arizona. At the Lagoon's estimated distance, the picture spans about 30 light-years.
Image credit: Processing: Tom Davis, Acquisition: Jim Misti