Catalogue
Carina Nebula
A stellar nursery so large it makes the Orion Nebula look like a puddle.
Raw → Processed
Annotated field
Catalogue labels plate-solved over the same frame
The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) - Spanning over 300 light-years across, this is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky - and from the southern hemisphere, it’s practically overhead.
Buried inside is Eta Carinae (Bright star middle right), a hypergiant star so unstable it could go supernova virtually any time on a cosmic timescale. The pillars of gas and dust you see are being actively sculpted by the ferocious radiation of thousands of newborn stars - some of the most massive in the Milky Way.