July 16, 2007
Even the most precise clock in the world cannot measure how unlikely your existence really is.
The Lagoon Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars
Birthday · July 16, 2007
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APOD published July 16, 2007. Credit: Antonio Fernandez. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Stars are battling gas and dust in the Lagoon Nebula but the photographers are winning. Also known as M8, this photogenic nebula is visible even without binoculars towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The energetic processes of star formation create not only the colors but the chaos. The red-glowing gas results from high-energy starlight striking interstellar hydrogen gas. The dark dust filaments that lace M8 were created in the atmospheres of cool giant stars and in the debris from supernovae explosions. The light from M8 we see today left about 5,000 years ago. Light takes about 50 years to cross this section of M8.
Image credit: Antonio Fernandez