M20 - The Trifid Nebula (jimwgram)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Sagittarius (Sgr) · Contains: B85 · M 20 · NGC 6514 · Trifid Nebula

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M20 - The Trifid Nebula

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M20 - The Trifid Nebula

9,000 light years away, in the Scutum spiral arm of the Milky Way, a dense cloud of dust and ionized hydrogen gas glows bright reddish/violet, powered by ultraviolet radiation from a bright central cluster of newly formed stars. At greater distances from this central core, the same gas seems to glow a bluish color: this far out, the radiation isn't strong enough to ionize the gas, so we are merely seeing reflected light from nearby hot blue stars.

M20, cataloged by Charles Messier in 1764, is another stellar nursery, an active star-forming region within our galaxy. William Herschel's son John later named it the "Trifid Nebula" -- "tri-lobed" --because he perceived it as three separate nebulae "with a vacuity in its midst". Through long exposure astrophotography, this "vacuity" is clearly revealed to be composed of thick, dense channels of dust and gas obscuring the glowing hydrogen emissions behind it. The entire nebula spans roughly 40 light years across.

This image was captured over three nights, a stacked composite of 62 exposures, two minutes each.

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.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4636709
PixInsight job	IAUFRYYNDRXZDBUPEFM68O3T5TNMG2BI
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	18h02m26s.674
RA (top/left)	18h03m30s.111
RA (top/right)	18h03m02s.991
RA (bottom/right)	18h01m23s.559
RA (bottom/left)	18h01m50s.169

Dec (center)	-22°59′08″.93
Dec (top/left)	-23°13′52″.70
Dec (top/right)	-22°40′10″.33
Dec (bottom/right)	-22°44′23″.62
Dec (bottom/left)	-23°18′06″.98

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M20 - The Trifid Nebula

M20 - The Trifid Nebula

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M20 - The Trifid Nebula

M20 - The Trifid Nebula

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