Infrared Trifid
From
NASA’s Astronomy
Picture of the Day
The
Trifid Nebula, also
known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope, a well-known
stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius.
But
where visible
light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark,
obscuring dust lanes, this
penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of glowing dust clouds
and newborn stars.
The
spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space
Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data to
count newborn and embryonic stars
which otherwise can lie hidden in the natal dust and gas clouds of this
intriguing stellar nursery.
As
seen here, the Trifid is about 30 light-years across and lies only 5,500
light-years away.
Image Credit: J. Rho (SSC/Caltech), JPL-Caltech, NASA