Simple facts
What it is: Trifid Nebula (Messier20)
Somewhere: Sagittarius is 5,000 light years away.
When shared: June 23, 2025
This week, researchers revealed their long-awaited debut images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This magnificent image is also known as the Messier 20, alongside one of the most detailed snapshots of the space ever taken in the first batch.
A cloud of gas and dust, Trifid Nebula is three things at a time. Therefore, its name (“Trifid” means that it is divided into three parts). According to NASA, pink is a luminescent nebula, a diffuse cloud of ionized gases. Blue is a reflective nebula, like a street lamp surrounded by mist, a cloud of gas and dust scattering the light of nearby stars. The dark areas of the image are dark nebras and dust lanes that divide the object into three parts, creating a complex web of dust and star clusters.
Related: Six incredible things hidden in the heart-wrenching first image of Vera C. Rubin Observatory
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Trifid Nebula is a dynamic location. Within it, a new star is born, producing strong radiation that carves gas into the magnificent shapes seen in the image.
The epic shots and 40 megapixel downloads available online as Zoomable versions are the result of 664 exposures taken over four nights in May 2025 and using a 3,200 megapixel legacy survey (LSST) camera. Attached to an 8.4m (27.6ft) Simonyi Survey Telescope. Together, they imagine the night sky of the Southern Hemisphere every three to four days for the next decade, creating an unprecedented time-lapse survey of the universe.
The last decade of research produces more data in a year than all previous optical astronomy combined. Rubin could identify millions of new asteroids (more than 2,100 have already been discovered in the first week), and identify unknown supernova and potentially dangerous nearby Earth objects. Each patch of the Skyrubin study is imaged approximately 800 times during the project that includes the Trifid nebula.
For sublime space images, see Space Photos in this week’s archives.
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