The bright Lagoon Nebula is home to a diverse array of astronomical objects as a bright open cluster and several energetic star-forming regions. When viewed by eye, cluster light is dominated by an overall red glow that is caused by luminous hydrogen gas, while the dark filaments are caused by absorption by dense lanes of dust. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8 and NGC 6523, lies about 5000 light-years away. The Lagoon Nebula can be located with binoculars in the constellation of Sagittarius spanning a region over three times the diameter of a full Moon. This image was produced combining three individual images obtained in three different filters, [OIII] (as blue channel), Halpha (as green channel) and [S II] (as red channel). Credits: Observed with the Curtis-Schmidt Camera using a 2048x2048 CCD at CTIO, Chile, by G. Folatelli, N. Morrell and R. Barbá. Images were processed by E. Fernández Lajús and colour composed by R. Barbá.
Astronomy Picture of the Day (August 20)

Previously unseen details of a mysterious, complex structure within the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are revealed by this image of the "Keyhole Nebula," obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The picture is a montage assembled from 4 different telescope pointings with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, which used 6 different color filters. The Carina Nebula, with an overall diameter of more than 200 light-years, is one of the outstanding features of the Southern Hemisphere portion of the Milky Way. Click here for more information

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a young cluster of massive stars at the center of  the 30 Doradus Nebula, also known as the Tarantula Nebula. Gas and dust clouds in 30 Doradus have been sculpted into elongated shapes by powerful winds and ultraviolet radiation from these hot cluster stars. Insets in the picture represent corresponding views from the Hubble's infrared camera where each square measures 15.5 light-years across. Penetrating the obscuring dust, these infrared images themselves offer detailed pictures of star formation within the nebula's collapsing clouds, revealing the presence of newborn massive star. This Nebula lies within our near neighbour galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Click here for more information.
Credits: Nolan Walborn (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA), Rodolfo Barbá (Observatorio Astronómico de La Plata, Argentina) & NASA.

Color image of the Great Carina Nebula. It was produced combining three individual images obtained in three different filters, [OIII] (as blue channel), Halpha (as green channel) and [S II] (as red channel). This Nebula was observed with the Curtis-Schmidt Camera using a 2048x2048 CCD at CTIO by G. Folatelli, N. Morrell and R. Barbá. Images were processed by E. Fernández Lajús and colour composed by G. Hagele.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a panoramic portrait of a vast, sculpted landscape of gas and dust where thousands of stars are being born. This fertile star-forming region, called the 30 Doradus Nebula, has a sparkling stellar centerpiece: the most spectacular cluster of massive stars in our cosmic neighborhood of about 25 galaxies. The mosaic picture shows that ultraviolet radiation and high-speed material unleashed by the stars in the cluster, called R136 [the large blue blob left of center], are weaving a tapestry of creation and destruction, triggering the collapse of looming gas and dust clouds and forming pillar-like structures that are incubators for nascent stars. Click here for more information
Credits: Nolan Walborn & Jesús Maíz-Apellaníz (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA) & Rodolfo Barbá (Observatorio Astronómico de La Plata, Argentina)

Star forming region in Scorpius obtained with Gemini South using the Flamingos-I near-infrared imager spectrograph. Made from J, H and K-short band images with a mean image quality of FWHM = 0.56 arcsec.
Credits: Gemini Observatory, University of Florida, N. Morrell, UNLP, CONICET