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STUDY IN CARINA
Image by Chris Baker- Study in Carina
I could be accused of being a little obsessed with this Nebula! Last year I launched my image of the entire nebula and then recently launched a James Webb Telescope image of a section called The Cliffs.
Recently I have been imaging a section of this enormous cloud of dust, gas and plasma which I thought to be particularly beautiful and interesting. I have finally finished processing the tens of hours of data and I hope you like it!
About the image
The Eta Carinae Nebula, also known as the Grand Nebula, or Carina Nebula, is a massive cloud of nebulosity, containing bright and dark nebulae. To put it’s size in perspective, it is over four times the size and considerably brighter than the more well-known Orion nebula.
The nebula is located in the southern hemisphere constellation of Carina and is estimated to be 8,500 light years away.
The section I have imaged contains some fascinating objects - in addition to its beauty of course!
Prominent are the dust lanes which cover over six lights years across. (Our entire Solar System has a diameter at best of one light year so this puts the size into perspective.)
There are numerous star forming regions and open star clusters- stars which have been born from the nebulosity. This cluster shown below (Trumpler 14) is approx. 9000 light years away and imbedded in the nebulosity It is undergoing rapid star formation. It is one of the youngest known star clusters, estimates range from 300 to 500 thousand years old. For comparison the famous Pleiades star cluster is about 115 million years old.
The open star cluster Trumpler 16 is also in the image and contains some of the most luminous stars in the entire Milky Way! They have all been born from the nebulosity.
The two stars on the far left are a binary system, rotating around a common centre and the lower one in this image is the most luminous star discovered at at least 2.4 MILLION times the brightness of our Sun!
Can you see the funny looking object just above this cluster? It looks like a fist with a finger pointing! This has been imaged by the Hubble Space Tlescope and got the name 'The Defiant Finger Nebula'.
Study in Carina
There is so much to look at and enjoy in this fascinating and beautiful image. Every time I look at it I see something new. I hope you like it too and and if you would like to purchase it in one of the media then pop along to HERE And don't forget the January discount code of 15% - use JAN23 on check-out.
Chris Baker