Carina Nebula - Landscapes
Date: 24 April 2007
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: Details of NGC 3372, Carina Nebula
Copyright: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Top
An approximately one-light-year tall pillar of cold hydrogen towers above the wall of the molecular cloud. The 2.5-million-year-old star cluster called Trumpler 14 appears at the right side of the image. A small nugget of cold molecular hydrogen, called a Bok globule, is silhouetted against the star cluster.
Middle
Detailed view of the central portion of the Carina Nebula near the Keyhole Nebula.
Bottom
These great clouds of cold hydrogen resemble summer afternoon thunderheads. They tower above the surface of a molecular cloud on the edge of the nebula. So-called elephant trunk pillars resist being heated and eaten away by blistering ultraviolet radiation from the nebula's brightest stars.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
