Messier 20 – The Trifid Nebula

If Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy, is the Stairway to Heaven and Messier 42, the Great Orion Nebula, is the Don’t Stop Believin’, then Messier 20 (M20), the Trifid Nebula (at the bottom of the frame), is the Afternoon Delight of amateur astrophotographers. A prolific star-forming region roughly 5,000 light years from Earth, the Trifid gets its name from its three prominent blue lobes.

The Trifid is both a reflection nebula illuminated by nearby stars as well as an emission nebula that generates its own light from ionized gasses. It also contains dark absorption nebula lanes that contribute to its name because they divide the main body into three parts. This rendering shows it in true color. It’s what you might see if your eyeball were 20 stories tall and you could stare at it for 20 hours without blinking.

On the upper-left corner of the Trifid, the red hydrogen emission material is catalogued as Sh2-30, although Sh2-30 is often used to characterize the entire Trifid Nebula.

For this image, I did a true color (broadband) incarnation as well as a false color (narrowband) version. You can see them both using the slideshow controls in the lower right corner of the image portal. The true color image shows more reflection material while the narrowband version reveals more of the underlying chemistry of the Trifid.