Mystic Mountain Monster being Destroyed
Explanation:
Inside the head of this interstellar monster is a star that is slowly destroying
it.
The huge monster, actually an inanimate series of pillars of gas and dust, measures
light years in length.
The in-head star is not itself visible through the
opaque
interstellar dust
but is bursting out partly by ejecting opposing beams of energetic particles called
Herbig-Haro
jets.
Located about 7,500 light years away in the
Carina Nebula and known informally as
Mystic Mountain, the appearance of these pillars
is dominated by dark dust even though they are composed mostly of clear
hydrogen gas.
The featured image was taken with the
Hubble Space
Telescope.
All over these pillars, the
energetic light and
winds from massive newly formed stars are
evaporating and dispersing the dusty stellar nurseries in which they formed.
Within a few million years, the head of this giant, as well as most of its body,
will have been
completely evaporated by
internal and surrounding stars.
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
