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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
A Close-Up of the Lagoon's Hourglass
Explanation: In the central part of the Lagoon Nebula lies the above pictured Hourglass Nebula . In this region of recent star formation, obscuring dark lanes of dust permeate the red-glowing hydrogen gas. Blocking some of the gas cloud from our view, they chance to create a glowing shape that appears from our vantage point like an hourglass . In the upper right of this picture from the Hubble Space Telescope is a bright young blue star from the open cluster NGC 6530 - visible below center in yesterday's APOD . A recent study of the Lagoon Nebula ( M 8), has shown that this emission nebula houses large magnetic fields and unusually large dust particles .
| Date | August 21, 1996 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: J. Trauger (JPL /Caltech), HST, STSci, NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |