Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great
Carina Nebula is more modestly known as NGC 3372.
One of our
Galaxy’s
largest star forming regions, it spans over 300 light-years.
Like the smaller, more northerly
Great Orion Nebula, the
Carina Nebula is easily visible to the
unaided eye.
But at a distance of 7,500 light-years
it lies some 5 times farther away.
This stunning telescopic view reveals
remarkable details of the region’s glowing filaments of
interstellar gas
and
obscuring 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 above the central dark notch in
this field and left of the
dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).