From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An image of the Carina nebula taken by theEuropean Southern Observatory'sVery Large Telescope (Ultra high image available by clicking)The Cosmic Cliffs at the edge of NGC 3324, one of the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope
TheCarina nebula (NGC 3372 or theGreat Nebula in Carina, theEta Carina nebula) is a large, brightnebula. It is around 7,500light years fromEarth and has over 14,000 stars.[1][2] It appears in the constellation ofCarina in theCarina–Sagittarius Arm of theMilky Way. The Carina nebula was discovered byNicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751 from theCape of Good Hope.[3] The French astronomer had made an astronomical expedition to record objects in the southern sky.
From the description in WP Commons:
"Trumpler 16 is an open cluster that contains the massiveluminous blue variableEta Carinae, one of the brightest stars in the galaxy. It is possibly as much as 120 times the mass of the Sun, and emits the light of 4,000,000 Suns. Eta Carinae is nearing the end of its life, and is surrounded by a huge nebula, cast off by numerous eruptions of the star over the last several centuries. It is expected to explode into asupernova at any time. Trumpler 14 (annotated) contains the huge double star HD 93129 A/B. The young O3 class star HD 93129 A is one of the brightest stars in the galaxy that is still on the main sequence, and with a luminosity equivalent to 3,000,000 Suns. It is very nearly as bright as Eta Carinae, but this is not obvious in the photo due to obscuring nebulosities".
