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A pink lagoon glows in the heart of the Milky Way. New photos taken by a telescope in Chile put the Lagoon Nebula — a giant cloud of gas and dust located 5,000 light-years from Earth — on rosy display.
The Lagoon Nebula (also called Messier 8) is about 100 light-years across and harbors young stars that shine brightly in the image, according to European Southern Observatory officials. The VLT Survey Telescope in Chile captured the picture, taken as part of a sweeping set of surveys designed to unlock mysteries of the universe. You can watch a video flythrough of the new Lagoon Nebula image from ESO, based on the new VLT telescope images.
"The surveys are addressing many important questions in modern astronomy," ESO officials said in a statement. "These include the nature of dark energy, searching for brilliant quasars in the early universe, probing the structure of the Milky Way and looking for unusual and hidden objects, studying the neighboring Magellanic Clouds in great detail, and many other topics. [See Spectacular Photos of Nebulas in Deep Space]
The Lagoon Nebula glows pink. Image released Jan. 22, 2014.
(Image credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team)
"History shows that surveys often find things that are unexpected and these surprises are crucial for the progress of astronomical research," ESO officials added.
The Lagoon Nebula gets its name from a lagoon-shaped dust trail that winds through the glowing gas, and this isn't the first time ESO has imaged it. The observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy captured the nebula in stunning detail in infrared light, giving the cosmic wonder a different kind of glow.
A wider view of the Lagoon Nebula and its surroundings reveals other nebulas in a lush patch of sky. The Lagoon Nebula glows orange in the middle of the image, and the Trifid Nebula at the top of the picture and other nebulas glow with the central nebula as well.
The Lagoon Nebula.
(Image credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team)
ESO has also imaged the Lagoon Nebula before, looking at it in infrared light with its Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy in Chile.
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The new images are part of one survey, yet there currently 11 public sky surveys in process using ESO telescopes. ESO officials have also released a zoomable version of the huge Lagoon Nebula image here: http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1403a/zoomable/
ESO is operated by 15 different countries and is the most productive ground-based astronomical observatory in the world, according to ESO officials.
Miriam Kramer joined Space.com as a staff writer in December 2012. Since then, she has floated in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight, felt the pull of 4-Gs in a trainer aircraft and watched rockets soar into space from Florida and Virginia. She also serves as Space.com's lead space entertainment reporter, and enjoys all aspects of space news, astronomy and commercial spaceflight. Miriam has also presented space stories during live interviews with Fox News and other TV and radio outlets. She originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee where she and her family would take trips to dark spots on the outskirts of town to watch meteor showers every year. She loves to travel and one day hopes to see the northern lights in person.
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