Lagoon Nebula (M8)

Lagoon Nebula (M8) — nebula, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Lagoon Nebula (M8) in an interactive 3D view of space. Inspect its astronomical data and the observations or reconstructions behind the model.

A vast cloud of glowing hydrogen where stars are still forming, threaded with dark dust lanes around the young cluster NGC 6530. Near its heart, the bright Hourglass region is carved by the hot star Herschel 36. From Earth’s side it matches the VLT Survey Telescope image; fly round it to see its 3D shape, which is a model.

Type

Star-forming nebula

Distance

About 4,300 light-years

Size

About 110 × 50 light-years

Lit by

The young cluster NGC 6530 and hot stars including 9 Sagittarii and Herschel 36

Visible

To the naked eye from a dark site, in Sagittarius

Shown here

VLT Survey Telescope image with its stars removed, as one continuous 3D volume of glowing gas and dust. From Earth it matches the image; from elsewhere it is a cavity opened in the near face of its dark cloud, the Hourglass a smaller pocket beside Herschel 36, the dark lanes in front

3D shape

Illustrative, after Tothill et al. 2008 and Lada et al. 1976; the dark lanes’ depth is a model, their columns read from the image

Image credit

ESO/VPHAS+ team · CC BY 4.0

Explore Lagoon Nebula (M8) in 3D

Lagoon Nebula (M8) is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.