Epic nebula 66 EP

Trifid Nebula

RA 270.6755° · Dec -22.9719° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges

66 pts · Epic

Epic 78 pts → Anomaly

Messier object +12
Coming towards us +10
Nebula +8
Has a proper name +8
Toward the galactic centre +8
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Diffuse nebula +6
Big on the sky +5
On the zodiac +3

Total score 66

12 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

Nebula · +8
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Messier object · +12
Has a proper name · +8
Diffuse nebula · +6
Toward the galactic centre · +8
On the zodiac · +3
Big on the sky · +5
Coming towards us · +10

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M20.

What it actually is

What it actually is. A nebula: a cloud of interstellar gas and dust, thinner than the best vacuum ever made in a laboratory yet spanning light-years.

Sense of scale

In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

How to spot it. At magnitude 8.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Sagittarius.
Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 72.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

constellation: Sgr
dist ly: 4128.557
dso type: Neb
mag: 8.5
messier: yes
messier number: 020
name: Trifid Nebula
named: yes
radial velocity kms: -5
size arcmin: 28

Nearby objects

About Trifid Nebula

Trifid Nebula is an epic nebula. It lies about 4,128.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr and shines at apparent magnitude 8.5.

A nebula: a cloud of interstellar gas and dust, thinner than the best vacuum ever made in a laboratory yet spanning light-years.

How to see it

Look for Trifid Nebula in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 8.5, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, Trifid Nebula is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why Trifid Nebula is an epic nebula

Trifid Nebula scores 66 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 9 science badges — Nebula, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Messier object, Has a proper name, Diffuse nebula, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac and Big on the sky — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.