Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Carina (Car)  ·  Contains:  Carina Nebula  ·  Foramen  ·  IC 2599  ·  NGC 3324  ·  NGC 3372  ·  PK288+00.1  ·  PK288-00.1  ·  PK289-00.1  ·  Part of the constellation Carina (Car)  ·  T Car  ·  eta Car  ·  eta Car Nebula  ·  t01 Car  ·  t02 Car  ·  u Car  ·  w Car
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), Charles Pevsner
Powered byPixInsight

Carina Nebula (NGC 3372)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), Charles Pevsner
Powered byPixInsight

Carina Nebula (NGC 3372)

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Great Carina Nebula, in the constellation Carina in the southern hemisphere, is a large star-forming region.  The beautiful cloud-like structures are carved from glowing gases, ionized and ripped apart by the hot young stars in the numerous open clusters in the region.

The central very bright star, Eta Carinae, is a continued source of study as a curious “failed supernova”.  It is a hypergiant star, with an estimated 150 million solar masses, 400 million times brighter than the Sun. In 1843, it lit up and for a long time was the second brightest star in the sky, but it faded away over the next decade.  A star that goes supernova becomes either a black hole or a neutron star, but oddly, Eta Carinae remained intact as a star.  Modern day measurements of the material surrounding the star show that about 10-20 solar masses were blown away in the 1843 event.  (And since 2005 it’s been known that Eta Carina is not in fact a single star, but a binary star system with a tight 5 ½ year mutual orbit.)

The nebula is about 8,500 light years away, and about 460 light years across.

The name “Carina” has an interesting origin.  The ancient Greeks likened the stars in this area of the sky to the Argo, the ship sailed by Jason and Argonauts, in search of the Golden Fleece.  However, the constellation was unwieldy because it was so large, and so in 1764, the illustrious French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (who also discovered the Carina Nebula proper, from the Cape of Good Hope) took it upon himself to split it up the Argo into three different constellations:  Vela (sails), Puppis (poop deck) and Carina (Latin for a ship’s keel).  De Lacaille’s divisions stuck, along with the names of 14 constellations he also constructed and named in his master star catalog of the southern hemisphere, the Coelum Australe Stelliferum; and so today we have the Carina constellation.

Comments

Revisions

  • Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), Charles Pevsner
    Original
  • Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), Charles Pevsner
    E
  • Final
    Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), Charles Pevsner
    F

E

Description: Started from scratch, with a more muted color palette; also substantially improved the color of the RGB stars.

Uploaded: ...

F

Description: Star reduction, and star color improvement

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), Charles Pevsner