                        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.

                                 2025 July 9

                             A Beautiful Trifid
             Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

   Explanation: The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in
   contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away
   toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region
   in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different
   types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light
   from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust
   reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear
   in silhouette. But, the red emission region roughly separated into
   three parts by obscuring dust lanes is what lends the Trifid its
   popular name. Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, above and
   right of the emission nebula's center, appear in famous Hubble Space
   Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40
   light-years across. Too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, in this
   deep telescopic view it almost covers the area of a full moon on planet
   Earth's sky.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

