Carina Nebula western wall (with adaptive optics)
noirlab_noirlab2025a October 5th, 2020
Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Hartigan (Rice University) Acknowledgment: Image processing: Patrick Hartigan (Rice University), Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin
A 50-trillion-km (33-trillion-mile, or 5 light-year) long section of the western wall in the Carina Nebula, as observed with adaptive optics on the Gemini South telescope. This mountainous section of the nebula reveals a number of unusual structures including a long series of parallel ridges that could be produced by a magnetic field, a remarkable almost perfectly smooth wave, and fragments that appear to be in the process of being sheared off the cloud by a strong wind. There is also evidence for a jet of material ejected from a newly-formed star. The exquisite detail seen in the image is in part due to a technology known as adaptive optics, which resulted in a ten-fold improvement in the resolution of the research team’s observations.
Provider: NOIRLab
Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab2025a/
Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Full Size Image
(2954 x 1576)
Source TIFF (26.7 MB)
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- noirlab2025a
- Subject Category
- Subject Name
- Carina Nebula
- Credits
- International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Hartigan (Rice University) Acknowledgment: Image processing: Patrick Hartigan (Rice University), Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin
- Release Date
- 2020-10-05T06:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab2025a/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Gemini South, Gemini South
- Instrument
- GSAOI, GSAOI
- Color Assignment
- Orange, Cyan
- Band
- Infrared, Infrared
- Bandpass
- H2(1-0) S(1), H I Brγ
- Central Wavelength
- 2248, 2166
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- None, None
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 160.877509173, -59.5888581524
- Reference Dimension
- 2954.0, 1576.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1477.0, 788.0
- Scale
- -1.62540435041e-05, 1.62540435041e-05
- Rotation
- -89.980000000000075
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- NSF's NOIRLab
- URL
- https://noirlab.edu
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- 950 North Cherry Ave.
- City
- Tucson
- State/Province
- AZ
- Postal Code
- 85719
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- NSF's NOIRLab
- Publisher ID
- noirlab
- Resource ID
- noirlab2025a
- Resource URL
- http://noirlab.edu/public/media/archives/images/original/noirlab2025a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2020-09-24T16:45:06+02:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
