Messier 20 (Trifid Nebula) and Messier 21 Open Cluster (Ayush Saurabh)

Messier 20 (Trifid Nebula) and Messier 21 Open Cluster

Incredibly unique and colorful Trifid Nebula (Messier 20) in the center and an open star cluster (Messier 21) in top-left. In the sky, these objects are located in the Sagittarius constellation in the direction of the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

About 9000 light years away from Earth, the Trifid Nebula itself is made of three different types of nebulae. The pink portion is an emission nebula where ionized hydrogen is emitting pinkish-colored light and is a star-forming region. In the center of this pink portion is a recently formed group of intensely bright and very rare "O" type stars that emit ultraviolet radiation string enough to blow any nearby gas.

The blue portion is a reflection nebula, which is basically interstellar dust scattering light from nearby stars.

And then there are the super dark streaks which are dust clouds so dense and cold that they absorb all the visible light (hence dark).

Lastly, at a distance of about 3900 light years from Earth, the open cluster Messier 21 is made of young stars that were born only about 6.6 million years ago (after all the dinosaurs died).
This picture was taken from Tonto National Forest near Mogollon Rim in Arizona.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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Astrometry.net job	n/a
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
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