Lagoon Nebula in Infrared Light (1996)

The Lagoon Nebula, also known as the Hourglass Nebula, lies about 5,000 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Within the Lagoon Nebula there are several collapsing clouds of gas and dust where new stars are forming. The brightest area is a region of very active star formation.

This image was taken in infrared light. For this false-color composite, the 8.28 µm band is shown in blue, green is a combination of the 12.13 µm band and the 14.65 µm band, and the 21.3 µm band was mapped to red. This image covers about 4.5 x 4.5 degrees in the sky.

The Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) mission, operated by the Naval Research Laboratory, launched into space on 24 April 1996.

Credit: MSX/IPAC/NASA [source].

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