Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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. 2021 March 19 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Central Lagoon in Infrared Image Credit & [3]License: [4]NASA, [5]ESA, [6]Hubble; Data Archive: [7]MAST, Processing: [8]Alexandra Nachman Explanation: Stars fill this infrared view, spanning 4 light-years across the center of the Lagoon Nebula. [9]Visible light images show the glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds that dominate the scene. [10]But this infrared image, constructed from [11]Hubble Space Telescope data, peers closer to the heart of the active star-forming region revealing newborn stars scattered within, against a crowded field of background stars [12]toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. [13]This tumultuous stellar nursery's central regions are sculpted and energized by the massive, young Herschel 36, seen as the bright star near center in the field of view. [14]Herschel 36 is actually a multiple system of massive stars. At over 30 times the mass of the Sun and less than 1 million years old, the most massive star in the system should live to a stellar old age of 5 million years. Compare that to the almost 5 [15]billion year old Sun which will evolve into a red giant in only another 5 billion years or so. [16]The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8, lies about 4,000 light-years away within the boundaries of the constellation Sagittarius. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [17]< | [18]Archive | [19]Submissions | [20]Index | [21]Search | [22]Calendar | [23]RSS | [24]Education | [25]About APOD | [26]Discuss | [27]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [28]Robert Nemiroff ([29]MTU) & [30]Jerry Bonnell ([31]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [32]Specific rights apply. [33]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [34]ASD at [35]NASA / [36]GSFC & [37]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/M8_HLA_F125wF160w_Nachman.jpg 3. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 4. https://www.nasa.gov/ 5. https://www.esa.int/ 6. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html 7. https://archive.stsci.edu/index.html 8. https://www.flickr.com/people/191751486@N08/ 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200601.html 10. https://www.flickr.com/photos/191751486@N08/51034138882/in/album-72157717920280422/ 11. https://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/wow/m8_2018-04.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190927.html 13. https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2018/news-2018-21.html?news=true 14. https://arxiv.org/abs/1409.2803 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,000,000,000 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190425.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210318.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 21. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 26. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210319 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210320.html 28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 30. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 31. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 33. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 34. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 35. https://www.nasa.gov/ 36. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 37. http://www.mtu.edu/