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Credit & Copyright: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center/SVS
- Inset: NASA, ESA, Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Explanation:
If
you're looking
for something
to print with that new
3D printer, try out a copy of the Homunculus Nebula.
The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across
but is slightly
scaled
down for printing to
about 1/4 light-nanosecond or 80 millimeters.
The full scale Homunculus surrounds Eta Carinae,
famously unstable
massive stars in a binary system
embedded in the extensive
Carina Nebula
about 7,500 light-years distant.
Between 1838 and 1845, Eta Carinae
underwent the Great Eruption becoming
the second brightest star in planet Earth's night sky
and ejecting the Homunculus Nebula.
The
new 3D model of the still expanding Homunculus
was created by
exploring
the nebula with the European Southern Observatory's
VLT/X-Shooter.
That instrument is capable of mapping the
velocity of molecular hydrogen
gas through the nebula's dust at a fine resolution.
It reveals trenches, divots and protrusions,
even in the dust obscured regions that face away from Earth.
Eta Carinae
itself still undergoes violent outbursts,
a candidate to explode in a spectacular supernova
in the next few million years.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: carina nebula - Eta Carinae
Publications with words: carina nebula - Eta Carinae
See also:
- The Great Carina Nebula
- APOD: 2024 February 5 Á In the Core of the Carina Nebula
- APOD: 2023 December 6 Á Stars Verus Dust in the Carina Nebula
- APOD: 2023 July 9 Á Doomed Star Eta Carinae
- APOD: 2023 May 1 Á Carina Nebula North
- Carina Cliffs from the Webb Space Telescope
- Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula