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Dark Globule and Stellar Jet in the Carina Nebula
The tadpole-looking feature in the center of this image is a nodule of cold hydrogen gas laced with dust. The image offers circumstantial evidence that a young star is being born inside the placental cloud. The diagonal feature may be caused by twin jets of gas blasting away from the hidden star. They are slamming into neighboring gas to create a pair of bow shocks on either side of the globule. The twisted "tail" on the back of the globule may be evidence for a wobbling jet of material being blasted from the suspected star.
This image is from a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
About the Object
- ConstellationConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.Carina
- DistanceDistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.Approximately 7,500 light-years (2,300 parsecs)
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.This color image combines many exposures from Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)* and NOAO/AURA/NSF Cerro-Tololo Interamerican Observatory's (CTIO) 4m Blanco Telescope and MOSAIC2 camera.
The ACS data was from the HST proposal 10241: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), J. Bally (University of Colorado at Boulder), N. Walborn (STScI), and J. Morse (NASA/GSFC).
*A small area of the Hubble ACS image that was saturated around the brightest star in the field, Eta Carinae, was replaced with images from previous shorter exposures from Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
The CTIO observing team includes: N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley), J. Bally (University of Colorado at Boulder), and J. Walawender (Institute for Astronomy/University of Hawaii).
*A small area of the Hubble ACS image that was saturated around the brightest star in the field, Eta Carinae, was replaced with images from previous shorter exposures from Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. - InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>ACS, CTIO>4m Blanco Telescope and CTIO>MOSAIC2
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.March - July 2005 (HST), December 2001 - March 2003 (CTIO)
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.ACS: F658N (H-alpha+[N II])CTIO: ([O III] 501nm), (H-alpha+[N II] 658nm) and ([S II] 672+673nm)
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.Dark Globula in NGC 3372, Carina Nebula
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Dark Globula, Stellar Jet, Emission Nebula
- Release DateApril 24, 2007
- Science ReleaseThe Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme
- Credit
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Details
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
