Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 February 15 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Carina Nebula Close Up Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble, [6]ESO, Amateur Data; Processing & Copyright: [7]Robert Gendler & [8]Roberto Colombari Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the [9]Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly [10]Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. [11]This gorgeous telescopic close-up reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments of [12]interstellar gas and obscuring [13]cosmic dust clouds in a field of view nearly 20 light-years across. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic and violently variable [14]Eta Carinae, a star system with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. In the processed composite of space and ground-based image data a dusty, two-lobed [15]Homunculus Nebula appears to surround Eta Carinae itself just [16]below and left of center. While Eta Carinae is likely on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable [17]supernova factory. Tomorrow's picture: planetary nebula portrait __________________________________________________________________ [18]< | [19]Archive | [20]Submissions | [21]Index | [22]Search | [23]Calendar | [24]RSS | [25]Education | [26]About APOD | [27]Discuss | [28]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [29]Robert Nemiroff ([30]MTU) & [31]Jerry Bonnell ([32]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [33]Specific rights apply. [34]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [35]ASD at [36]NASA / [37]GSFC & [38]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2002/Eta-HST-ESO-New-LL.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://hubblesite.org/ 6. https://www.eso.org/ 7. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/ 8. https://www.facebook.com/roberto.colombari 9. http://messier.seds.org/xtra/ngc/n3372.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090826.html 11. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Eta-HST-ESO-New.html 12. http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/ism/what1.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100919.html 14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140717.html 16. https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2007/16/2115-Image.html 17. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/carina/ 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200214.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 22. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 27. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200215 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200216.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 31. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 32. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 34. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 35. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 36. https://www.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 38. http://www.mtu.edu/