NGC 3372 (Keyhole) (Jochen Maes)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Carina (Car)

NGC 3372 (Keyhole)

Link: https://www.jochenmaes.com/astronomy/nebulae?itemId=d7i6lhzh6wcomq5la0xdd1te7pu4ax

NGC 3372 (Keyhole)

Link: https://www.jochenmaes.com/astronomy/nebulae?itemId=d7i6lhzh6wcomq5la0xdd1te7pu4ax

NGC 3372 is an emission nebula in the Carina constellation, around 8500 light years from earth.

What we're looking at here is the center region of said nebula. The main feature in the center of the frame (sometimes referred to as the keyhole nebula) is essentially a structure of cold gas/dust that's been "carved" out its surroundings. The smaller dark structures surrounding it (we call these bok globules) are essentially the same thing taken to the extreme (very compressed and dense pockets of gas/dust).

The reason for all this is the stellar wind (think of it as radiation applying immense pressure) from the massive star you can see in the frame, called Eta Carinae. At roughly 150 times the mass of the Sun, massive is perhaps even an understatement. This very star is so extreme and interesting/weird in many aspects that I don't even know how to explain it in a format brief enough to fit this space. If this sort of stuff interests you; I highly recommend doing a Google search for "Eta Carinae" and read up on it (the Wikipedia article is a good summary).

Image acquisition details:

7x900" HA
7x900" OIII
11x900" SII

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7335708
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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NGC 3372 (Keyhole)

NGC 3372 (Keyhole)

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NGC 3372 (Keyhole)

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