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The birth of stars
This new Hubble photo is but a small portion of one of the largest seen star-birth regions in the galaxy, the Carina Nebula. Towers of cool hydrogen laced with dust rise from the wall of the nebula. Reminiscent of Hubble’s classic image of the Eagle Nebula dubbed the ‘Pillars of Creation’ this image is even more striking in appearance. Captured here are the top of a three-light-year-tall* pillar of gas and the dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being pushed apart from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks like arrows sailing through the air.
*A light year is a unit of measure astronomers use to measure distance and it is the distance light travels in one year. Since it travels 300 000 km/second, that works out as 43 000 km/day (that’s 432 billion km) and 157 680 000 000 km a 365-day year (add the extra 432 billion km when it’s a leap year.) Light takes just over 8 minutes to reach us from the Sun, by the way.
(Image: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team [STScI])
