On 8/12/21, NASA’s Image of the Day website featured a Chandra release entitled “The Lagoon Nebula Gives Birth to Stars.” Known as NGC 6523 or the Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8 is a giant cloud of gas and dust where stars are born. At about 4,000 light years from Earth, Messier 8 provides astronomers an excellent opportunity to study the properties of very young stars. Many infant stars give off copious amounts of high-energy light including X-rays, which are seen in the Chandra data (pink). The X-ray data have been combined with an optical image of Messier 8 from the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center in Arizona (blue and white).
For more information visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-lagoon-nebula-gives-birth-to-stars
