Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2003 June 30 
Posted on 06/29/2003 9:49:38 PM PDT by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2003 June 30
Explanation: This dense cloud of gas and dust is being deleted. Likely, within a few million years, the intense light from bright stars will have boiled it away completely. Stars not yet formed in the molecular cloud's interior will then stop growing. The cloud has broken off of part of the greater Carina Nebula, a star forming region about 8000 light years away. Newly formed stars are visible nearby, their images reddened by blue light being preferentially scattered by the pervasive dust. This unusually-colored image spans about two light years and was taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 1999. This Carina sub-cloud is particularly striking partly because it's clear definition stimulates the human imagination (e.g. it could be perceived as a superhero flying through a cloud, arm up, with a saved person in tow below).
My first impression was of a cosmic bird - the flipped kind.
The Carina Nebula is located too far south for observers in the USA. Here is a chart for those located further south:
C92: NGC 3372
R.A. 10h 43.8m Dec. -59o 52'
Bright nebula (Eta Carina) in Carina, 120' diameter.
This is also the "home nebula" of the enigmatic Eta Carinae. Its mass ejections and high-energy radiation formed and light up the nebula.
Here is the "Keyhole Nebula" within the larger Carina Nebula. Embedded within is Eta Carinae.
Here is the famous Hubble close-up enhanced image of Eta Carinae in its shell of ejected material.
And here is what the Chandra X-Ray Observatory sees:
My first impression too. LOL
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