Messier 20

After applying the techniques of unsharp masking and photographic amplifying to this 3-color composite image taken with the 3.9-meter Anglo Australian Telescope, David Malin was able to bring out fine faint details of the Trifid Nebula. In particular, it becomes obvious that the blue reflection nebula completely envelopes the brighter red emission nebula, and itself exhibits a complicated structure. The patchy pattern of dark nebulae is also conspicuous in this image.

This image is copyrighted by the Australian Astronomical Observatory; see their usage policy.

Unprocessed version of the same composite image

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Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: April 19, 1998