Stormy Lagoon Nebula Revealed in Spectacular New Hubble Image

First Posted: Jul 31, 2015 04:48 PM EDT

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a breathtaking new image of the center of the Lagoon Nebula, a region that's known for its storm of activity. The new picture reveals the intense winds from hot stars that churn funnels of gas and energetic star formation within an intricate haze of gas and dust.

Nebulae are often named based on their key characteristics. For example, the Horsehead nebula looks like a horse's head. This new NASA image, though, reveals the center of the Lagoon Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 8, within the constellation Sagittarius.

The inspiration for this planet's name is due to the broad, lagoon-shaped dust lane that crosses the glowing gas of the nebula which you can see when you get a wider field of view. In this image, though, you get a closer look at the nebula's center.

This latest image combines both infrared and optical light rather than being purely optical. Infrared light cuts through thick, obscuring patches of dust and gas, revealing the more intricate structures underneath and producing a completely different landscape.

The bright star embedded in dark clouds at the center of this image is actually known as Herschel 36. This star is responsible for sculpting the surrounding cloud, stripping away material and influencing its shape. This star is actually the main source of ionizing radiation for this part of the Lagoon Nebula.

The central part of the Lagoon Nebula has two main structures of gas and dust connected by wispy twisters, which are visible in the middle third of this image. These features are thought to be warped into their funnel-like shapes by temperature differences between the hot surface and cold interior of the clouds.

The new image reveals a bit more about this image and shows what its very heart looks like.

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TagsNebula, star, Stars, ionized gas