The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of the Lagoon Nebula, one of the finest and brightest star-forming regions known our Milky Way Galaxy.
This Hubble image shows the center of the Lagoon Nebula. The region is filled with intense winds from hot stars, churning funnels of gas, and energetic star formation, all embedded within an intricate haze of gas and pitch-dark dust. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Trauger, JPL.
The Lagoon Nebula, also known as Messier 8 or M8, lies approximately 5,000 light-years away from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The object is about 30 light-years across.
It was discovered about 1654 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna, who classified the object as ‘nebulosa,’ i.e. of intermediate brightness. It was independently noted as a ‘nebula’ by the British astronomer John Flamsteed in 1680.
The central hot star, Herschel 36, is the primary source of the ionizing radiation for the brightest region in the nebula, called the Hourglass.
Other hot stars, also present in the nebula, are ionizing the outer visible parts of the nebulous material.
This ionizing radiation heats up and evaporates the surfaces of the clouds, and drives violent stellar winds which tear into the cool clouds.
This Hubble image reveals a pair of one-half light-year long interstellar ‘twisters’ – eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures (upper left) – in the heart of the nebula. Image credit: A. Caulet / ST-ECF / ESA / NASA.
Analogous to the phenomena of tornadoes on Earth, the large difference in temperature between the hot surface and cold interior of the clouds, combined with the pressure of starlight, may produce strong horizontal ‘windshear’ to twist the clouds into their tornado-like appearance.
This image combines images taken using optical and IR light gathered by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
