Messier 16

Messier 16 is a gigantic cloud made up of interstellar gas and dust, sitting about 7,200 light years away from Earth in the constellation Serpens. The nebula is home to both newly forming and older stars. The heat and radiation coming from these stars have ionized the surrounding gases, causing the clouds to glow in various colours. The nebula contains many open clusters of stars, one such cluster is said to contain around 8,500 stars. One of the brightest stars found within Messier 16 is HD 168076 which is calculated to be 80 times bigger than our sun and 1 million times brighter. The nebula was first discovered by Jean Philippe de Chateaux in 1745. The image above was captured by the Wide Field Imager Camera at the La Silla Observatory.