The Trifid nebula is a bright star forming region in Sagittarius. It is about
5,000 light years from Earth. The Trifid nebula contains both an emission
nebula, which has a young star cluster near its center, and a reflection nebula
which surrounds the emission nebula and shines by reflecting light from the
newly formed stars.

For this false-color Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) composite, the 8.28 µm 
band was mapped to the blue channel, the 12.13 µm band was mapped to the green 
channel, and the 21.3 µm band was mapped to the red channel. This image covers 
about 0.5 x 0.5 degrees in the sky.

Credit: MSX/IPAC/NASA