Mostly Mute Monday: A Tribute To The Greatest French Nebula In Space
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As we all still recover from the Paris attacks, remember the beauty and joy of one of the most forgotten French discoveries.
“Truth is more valuable if it takes you a few years to find it.” –Jules Renard
In the 18th century, French astronomer Charles Messier pioneered the science of cataloguing astronomical objects, assisting comet-hunters in avoiding confusion with permanent, deep-sky objects.
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Consisting of 110 objects, the Messier catalogue contains 65 original discoveries by Messier himself, including the Trifid Nebula: Messier 20.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*3-MI34_wzW2vVJVhQaSPNg.jpeg)
The youngest star-forming nebula in the Milky Way, it’s named “Trifid” because of its three sections: the blue, the red, and the dust-rich region between them.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*h63QN4iChv1eeeSrFE0NZg.jpeg)
Formed over the past few million years by the collapse of a molecular gas cloud, the three components represent three different stages of evolution in a star-forming nebula.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*FekhAYGA-oecUMIDe185Tg.jpeg)
The youngest stars are in the red region: an emission nebula.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*T1gIAi-seAm-a65U-JkhCw.jpeg)
As new stars form, their ultraviolet light ionizes and evaporates the surrounding gas, while the recombining electrons cause the emission of the characteristic red (656.3 nanometer) light.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*yG6klhHBUUQhM_rZ7xMD1g.jpeg)
The blue region is a reflection nebula: emitting no light of its own, but reflecting the light from young, bright nearby stars.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*2v-PLAFAxWbRdHD4lzvUhw.jpeg)
And the dust lanes are stellar nurseries, where gas collapses, leading to new stars.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*M2GiSmwKPrv7J-FmQO7bag.jpeg)
This pattern mimics the tricolor French flag.
![](https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*BJvRM_mRtZrmFG7bnLFDKg.jpeg)
Inside, the shortest-lived stars may yet result in our galaxy’s next supernova.
Mostly Mute Monday tells the story of a single astronomical phenomenon or object in visuals, images, video and no more than 200 words.
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