Trifid Nebula

Uh, we talked about Messier 8, which is the Lagoon Nebula, um, and also the open cluster that is, that is associated with it.

And then the, the nearby, uh, M20, uh, M21, which is the, uh, Trifid and associated nebulae and cluster there.

Um, and then also there's, uh, a couple other open clusters like, uh, M23, uh, that are in that area.

Uh, but the other ones that we talked about were also globulars, being, uh, Messier 9, Messier 10, Messier 12, Messier 19, uh, 62, and M107, which are all along sort of that, uh, Ophiuchus, Scorpius area.

But what has Vista revealed? Argentinian astrophysicist Dante Minniti, who led the survey project, said, "We've made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our galaxy forever." And as much as [laughs] I'd love to talk about all of them in this video, it's probably best I stick to some of the highlights.

As part of the survey in 2015, Vista turned its attention to the star formation region of Messier 20, also known as the Trifid Nebula, which lies about 9,000 light-years from Earth.

Viewed in visible light in this image, we can see a beautiful nebula glowing pink from the emission of ionized hydrogen and surrounded by a blue haze of scattered light from young, hot stars.

The cloud of gas and dust is obscuring the star-filled space behind it.

Now, look at this second image taken by Vista's infrared camera.

Peering beyond the clouds reveals a whole swarm of new stars.

This image not only allows us to see through the Trifid Nebula, but by chance, it revealed objects on the far side of our galaxy that had never been seen before.

To their surprise, astronomers identified two faint reddened objects as Cepheid variable stars.

There's so much to see, an endless list of famous, what astronomers call, deep sky objects.

You've got the Lagoon Nebula, you've got the Trifid Nebula, you've got the Eagle Nebula.

The Hubble Telescope got the famous picture of the Eagle Nebula.

You've got star clusters like Ptolemy's star clusters and the Wild Duck star cluster 'cause it looks like a flock of ducks.