This photograph is incredible.
A piller of gas and dust within the Carina Nebula, 7,500 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Carina. The 3-light-year-long pillar is seen bathed in the glow of light from hot, massive stars off the top of the image. Radiation and streams of charged particles from these stars are sculpting the pillar and causing new stars to form within it. The image is a composite of separate exposures made July 24 to 30, 2009. The color results from assigning different colors to each monochromatic image.
I love images like this from space. As a kid, I was really into Radio Astronomy (Ham Radio and all, no joke!) and I would get really stoked to see photos of deep space. I’ve been meaning to check out the new images from the Hubble…and now that I’ve seen this one, it’s a huge priority! So amazing.
