(See description below)
Center of the Carina Nebula
This image is part of a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth—and death—is taking place.
Hubble's view of the nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The
fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action of outflowing
winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit
this inferno. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material
that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born.
The immense nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are roughly
estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. The most unique
and opulent inhabitant is the star Eta Carinae, just
left of center. Eta Carinae is in
the final stages of its brief and eruptive lifespan, as evidenced by two
billowing lobes of gas and dust that presage its upcoming explosion as a titanic
supernova.
The fireworks in the Carina region started three million years ago when the
nebula's first generation of newborn stars condensed and ignited in the middle
of a huge cloud of cold molecular hydrogen. Radiation from these stars carved
out an expanding bubble of hot gas. The island-like clumps of dark clouds
scattered across the nebula are nodules of dust and gas that are resisting being
eaten away by photoionization.
The hurricane blast of stellar winds and blistering ultraviolet radiation within
the cavity is now compressing the surrounding walls of cold hydrogen. This is
triggering a second stage of new star formation.
Our Sun and our solar system may have been born inside such a cosmic crucible 4.6 billion years ago. In looking at the Carina Nebula we are seeing the genesis of star making as it commonly occurs along the dense spiral arms of a galaxy.
The immense nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina the Keel (of the old southern constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, from Greek mythology).
This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken
with
Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were
taken in the light of neutral hydrogen. Color information was added with data
taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds
to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.