M8 – Giant ‘twisters’ in the Lagoon Nebula

This stunning Hubble image maps the chemical elements in a small region of the Lagoon Nebula known as the Hourglass. Blue represents oxygen, green represents hydrogen and red stands for sulfur. Each of the eerie, tornado-like funnels toward the center of the image is roughly one-half light-year long and both appear to be twisting. The bright star at the bottom right of the image is Herschel 36.