Two magnificent videos have been released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), zooming-into and panning accross exquisitely detailed images of the Lagoon Nebula (M8) in the constellation Sagittarius.  We see new born stars, internally illuminating their cloud duvet.

The images were recorded from the "VLT" Survey Telescope at the ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. 

Best viewed as full-screen video!

Zooming in on a new image of the Lagoon Nebula from the VST

You are taken from a wide view of the central Milky Way deep into a detailed new picture of the Messier 8 star formation region — the Lagoon Nebula.

Panning across a new image of the Lagoon Nebula from the VST

A close-up of a richly detailed new image of the Lagoon Nebula.  This giant cloud of gas and dust is creating intensely bright young stars, and is home to young stellar clusters. This image is a tiny part of just one of eleven public surveys of the sky now in progress using ESO telescopes. Together these are providing a vast legacy of publicly available data for the global astronomical community.

Futher Information

Want a tour of the European Southern Observatory in Chile?  Here it is...