Messier 20
Messier 20, commonly known as the Trifid Nebula, is a composite nebula in the constellation Sagittarius located about 9,000 light‑years from Earth. It features three distinct components—an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and dark dust lanes that divide it into three lobes—making it a prominent site of ongoing star formation.
Source: science.nasa.gov
APODs including "Messier 20"
Infrared Trifid
07/07/2007
The Trifid Nebula, aka Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. But where visible light pictures show the nebula divided into three parts by dark, obscuring dust lanes, this penetrating infrared image reveals filaments of glowing dust clouds and newborn stars. The spectacular false-color view is courtesy of the Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers have used the Spitzer infrared image data to count newborn and embryonic stars which otherwise can lie hidden in the natal dust and gas clouds of this intriguing stellar nursery. As seen here, the Trifid is about 30 light-years across and lies only 5,500 light-years away.