Hubble captures spectacular landscape in the Carina Nebula

Esahubble_heic1007e_1024

esahubble_heic1007e April 23rd, 2010

Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio, The Hubble Heritage Team and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this billowing cloud of cold interstellar gas and dust rising from a tempestuous stellar nursery located in the Carina Nebula, 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. This pillar of dust and gas serves as an incubator for new stars and is teeming with new star-forming activity. Hot, young stars erode and sculpt the clouds into this fantasy landscape by sending out thick stellar winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation. The low density regions of the nebula are shredded while the denser parts resist erosion and remain as thick pillars. In the dark, cold interiors of these columns new stars continue to form. In the process of star formation, a disc around the proto-star slowly accretes onto the star's surface. Part of the material is ejected along jets perpendicular to the accretion disc. The jets have speeds of several hundreds of miles per second. As these jets plough into the surrounding nebula, they create small, glowing patches of nebulosity, called Herbig-Haro (HH) objects. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting in opposite directions off the pedestal on the upper right-hand side of the image. Another pair of jets is visible in a peak near the top-centre of the image. These jets (known as HH 901 and HH 902, respectively) are common signatures of the births of new stars. This image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around Earth. Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 observed the pillar on 1-2 February 2010. The colours in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green) and sulphur (red).

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1007e/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Carina Nebula HH 901 HH 902
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula
Nebula > Type > Jet
Esahubble_heic1007e_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 10h 44m 4.4s
DEC = -59° 30’ 6.2”
Orientation
North is 117.2° CCW
Field of View
2.6 x 1.8 arcminutes
Constellation
Carina

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (Sii) 673.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (H-alpha + Nii) 657.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (Oiii) 502.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_heic1007e_1280
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ID
heic1007e
Subject Category
B.4   B.4.1.5  
Subject Name
Carina Nebula, HH 901, HH 902
Credits
NASA, ESA, and M. Livio, The Hubble Heritage Team and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
Release Date
2010-04-23T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1007e/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Sii, H-alpha + Nii, Oiii
Central Wavelength
673, 657, 502
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
161.01814977, -59.5017303111
Reference Dimension
4003.0, 2719.0
Reference Pixel
2001.5, 1359.5
Scale
-1.10295162996e-05, 1.10295162996e-05
Rotation
117.21999999999997
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic1007e
Metadata Date
2019-08-22T04:48:49.408283
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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