NASA nebula image captures violent birth of stars

[Rudeboy2025]

"NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, in this undated image, has released on April 24, 2007, one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras, a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of a star's birth and death is taking place."

"The image shows a towering 'mountain' of cold hydrogen gas laced with dust which is the site of new star formation. A pencil-like streamer of gas shoots out in both directions from the pillar. The jet is being launched from a newly forming star hidden inside the column. A similar jet appears near the bottom of the image.These stellar jets are a common signature of the birth of a new star. The fireworks in the Carina region started three million years ago when the nebula�s first generation of newborn stars condensed and ignited in the middle of a huge cloud of cold molecular hydrogen.The immense nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina."

In celebration of the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers is releasing one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble's cameras. It is a 50-light-year-wide view of the central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth - and death - is taking place.

Hubble's view of the nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born.

The immense nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are roughly estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. The most unique and opulent inhabitant is the star Eta Carinae, at far left. Eta Carinae is in the final stages of its brief and eruptive lifespan, as evidenced by two billowing lobes of gas and dust that presage its upcoming explosion as a titanic supernova.

The fireworks in the Carina region started three million years ago when the nebula's first generation of newborn stars condensed and ignited in the middle of a huge cloud of cold molecular hydrogen. Radiation from these stars carved out an expanding bubble of hot gas. The island-like clumps of dark clouds scattered across the nebula are nodules of dust and gas that are resisting being eaten away by photoionization.

The hurricane blast of stellar winds and blistering ultraviolet radiation within the cavity is now compressing the surrounding walls of cold hydrogen. This is triggering a second stage of new star formation.

Our Sun and our solar system may have been born inside such a cosmic crucible 4.6 billion years ago. In looking at the Carina Nebula we are seeing the genesis of star making as it commonly occurs along the dense spiral arms of a galaxy.

The immense nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina the Keel (of the old southern constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, from Greek mythology).

This image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of neutral hydrogen. Color information was added with data taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.

Source: NASA

Awesome pictures.

[toyo]

extraordinary. can u still say that god does not exist?

[Redalb]

extraordinary. can u still say that god does not exist?

That's exactly why I would say god does not exist. We clearly see that nature is what creates solar systems.

[nsane]

true, but then who or what created the laws of nature? nothingness? ;)

[Redalb]

Well, I would say all molecules of a substances are unchangeable. They dont change how the react to certain things whimsically. I guess what im trying to say is all molecules interact systematically, they all have a certain order in how they operate. If they didnt they wouldnt really be molecules, and we know molecules is what everything is made up of. That picture is a panorama of 50 light years - Of course it is going to look amazing. Systematically that is what a starbirth typically looks like (does nasa add color?) and im sure thats relatively close to how they all form. Also, we havent found life on other planets, so why would god be randomly making new solar systems? Perhaps a favorite hobby.

[nsane]

perhaps god didn't create just us, or even intend to for that matter. what i was saying was, who created the molecules at which the universe is made. like, one day nothingness didn't just turn into molecules -- someone or something created them.

my thoughts on the subject basically go like this, god created the foundations for life to be possible (atoms, molecules, or wherever he started) and everything else just naturally happened from there. so we're basically not god's direct creations, but more like a RESULT of the creation he started billions or even trillions of years ago when the first carbon atoms were formed. same goes for those nebulas above, they're just the results of dying stars, not the work of god ;)