Pictures of the Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula, M8, is located in the constellation Sagittarius and is a stone's throw away in cosmic terms, just 5,200 lightyears from Earth.

The Lagoon Nebula is formally known as Messier 8, as it was one of the deep-sky objects catalogued by French astronomer Charles Messier when he was compiling his Messier Catalogue.

Rather than making a list of tantalising deep-sky objects, however, Messier was in fact a comet hunter, and was listing celestial objects he wanted to avoid in his search for comets!

The Lagoon Nebula had been discovered much earlier, however, in 1654 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna.

This star-forming region is a cosmic cloud of interstellar gas that glows due to stars within the nebula unleashing ultraviolet radiation and ionising hydrogen gas, causing it to shine.

Of particular note is NGC 6530, an open star cluster embedded within the nebula, and giant star Herschel 36, which is the main source of the Lagoon Nebula's glow.

This star is 32 times as massive as our Sun and is unleashing a torrent of charged particles known as a stellar wind, which sculpts and carves the cosmic cloud and gives the Lagoon Nebula its distinctive shape.

Below is a selection of images the Lagoon Nebula - some in which it is paired with the Trifid Nebula - sent to us by BBC Sky at Night Magazine readers and astrophotographers from around the world.

If you are interested in astrophotography, browse our astrophotography guides or learn how to fine-tune your images with our image processing tutorial.

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