This is a newly released Hubble image of the Lagoon Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 8 and the star cluster NGC 6523. It lies 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Image credit: NASA, ESA, J. Trauger (Jet Propulson Laboratory).This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the Lagoon Nebula, an object with a deceptively tranquil name. The region is filled with intense winds from hot stars, churning funnels of gas, and energetic star formation, all embedded within an intricate haze of gas and pitch-dark dust.
The placid appearance of NGC 4889 can fool the unsuspecting observer. But the elliptical galaxy, pictured here in front of hundreds of background galaxies, and deeply embedded within the Coma galaxy cluster in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, harbours a dark secret. At its heart lurks one of the most massive black holes ever discovered.
It may be famous for hosting the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and 47 Tucanae, the second brightest globular cluster in the night sky, but the southern constellation of Tucana (The Toucan) also possesses a variety of unsung cosmic beauties. One such beauty is NGC 299, an open star cluster located within the SMC just under 200,000 light-years away.
A supermassive black hole at the heart of galaxy NGC 1097 powers a brilliant nuclear ring of run-away star formation as imaged by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.