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Credit & Copyright: European Southern Observatory
Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great
Carina Nebula, aka NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years,
one of our Galaxy's largest star
forming regions.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500
light-years
it is some 5 times farther away.
This
stunning telescopic view from the
2.2-meter ESO/MPG telescope La Silla Observatory
in Chile reveals remarkable details
of the region's glowing filaments of
interstellar gas and
dark cosmic dust clouds.
The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including
the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with
well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.
Eta Carinae
is the bright star left of the central dark notch in
this field and near the dusty Keyhole
Nebula (NGC 3324).
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: carina nebula
Publications with words: carina nebula
See also: