Carinae nebula (Milky Way) back wall
A cosmic landscape of gas, dust and young stars in the majestic Carina nebula, which is located about 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The lively star nursery lies deep in the heart of the southern Milky Way, in the constellation of Carina (The Keel).
Eta Carinae appears at the UPPER RIGHT, Eta Carinae, one of the brightest stars in the galaxy, possibly as much as 120 times the mass of the Sun, and emitting the light of 4,000,000 Suns. This object is currently the most massive star that can be studied in great detail,
Eta Carinae’s effects on the nebula can be seen directly. The dark globules have tails pointing directly away from the massive star.
Stars with more than 80 times the mass of the Sun produce more than a million times as much light as the Sun. They are quite rare—only a few dozen in a galaxy as big as ours—and they flirt with disaster near the Eddington limit, i.e., the outward pressure of their radiation is almost strong enough to counteract gravity. Stars that are more than 120 solar masses exceed the theoretical Eddington limit, and their gravity is barely strong enough to hold in its radiation and gas, resulting in a possible supernova or hypernova in the near future.
Trumpler 14 is the bright star grouping close to the center of the picture. Over the last few million years, this region of the sky has formed large numbers of individual stars and star clusters.
Homunculus Nebula (from the Latin meaning Little Man).Within the large bright nebula is a much smaller feature, immediately surrounding Eta Carinae itself. It was ejected in an enormous outburst in 1841