Teaching tools > Stellar evolution > Overview: Extreme star birth in Carina Nebula > Tales of: Extreme star birth in Carina Nebula

Tales of ... Extreme star birth in the Carina Nebula See image below   See zoomable Carina image

In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers released one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a turbulent storm of star birth — and death — is taking place.

Hubble's view of the nebula shows stellar evolution in a new level of detail. The nebula’s fantasy-like landscape is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this region. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material that is the last trace of the giant cloud from which the stars were born.

The immense nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. The most unique and magnificent inhabitant is the star Eta Carinae, at far left. Eta Carinae is in the final stages of its brief and eruptive lifespan, as evidenced by two billowing lobes of gas and dust that foretell its upcoming explosion as a titanic supernova. (Continued >>)

The Carina Nebula is shown in the image at top. Star Eta Carinae (shown in enlargement) has two billowing lobes of gas and dust that foretell its upcoming explosion as a titanic supernova. Go to the zoomable Carina image to see all of Carina's features up close.

Teaching tools > Stellar evolution > Overview: Extreme star birth in Carina Nebula > Tales of: Extreme star birth in Carina Nebula