APOD: The Great Carina Nebula (2011 Jun 09)

[APOD Robot]

The Great Carina Nebula

Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye, though at a distance of 7,500 light-years it is some 5 times farther away. This gorgeous telescopic portrait reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. Wider than the Full Moon in angular size, the field of view stretches nearly 100 light-years across the nebula. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star at the left, near the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324). While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.

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[geckzilla]

Ok, who put that manta ray in there?

[Ann]

That's a great picture! So beautiful!

In the center of the image is an apparently smallish cluster, Trumpler 14, which is however home to some really supermassive hot young stars. I believe that one of the stars in Trumpler 14 is a contender for the most massive star in our galaxy.

Of course, Eta Carina itself is no wimp, either!

Ann

[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23674

[zbvhs]

In the context of the Carina Nebula, what is "dust"? Obviously, at the high end of the mass scale, you have stars. At the bottom end, you would have particles like the soot coming off a burning candle. What's in between? Seems like you would a whole range of particle sizes including, for example brown dwarfs, planet-size bodies, and rocks of a few kilograms. Have statistical models been devised to characterize the mass distribution of the stuff we see as "dust"?

[neufer]

The Great Carina Nebula

The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star at the left, near the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324). While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that the Great Carina Nebula has been a veritable supernova factory.

One theory of Eta Carinae's ultimate fate. Drawing of a massive star collapsing to form a black hole. Energy released as jets along the rotation axis forms gamma ray bursts. Credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller/NSF

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<<It is possible that the Eta Carinae hypernova or supernova, when it occurs, could affect Earth, about 7,500 light years away. It is unlikely, however, to affect terrestrial lifeforms directly, as they will be protected from gamma rays by the atmosphere, and from some other cosmic rays by the magnetosphere. The damage would likely be restricted to the upper atmosphere, the ozone layer, spacecraft, including satellites, and any astronauts in space, although a certain few claim that radiation damage to the upper atmosphere would have catastrophic effects as well. At least one scientist has claimed that when the star explodes, "it would be so bright that you would see it during the day, and you could even read a book by its light at night". A supernova or hypernova produced by Eta Carinae would probably eject a gamma ray burst (GRB) out on both polar areas of its rotational axis. Calculations show that the deposited energy of such a GRB striking the Earth's atmosphere would be equivalent to one kiloton of TNT per square kilometer over the entire hemisphere facing the star with ionizing radiation depositing ten times the lethal whole body dose to the surface. This catastrophic burst would probably not hit Earth, though, because the rotation axis does not currently point towards our solar system. If Eta Carinae is a binary system, this may affect the future intensity and orientation of the supernova explosion that it produces, depending on the circumstances.>>

[Jim Leff]

Another APOD showing a super-distant object that would loom surprisingly large in our nighttime sky if it were simply a little bit brighter (ala http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061228.html)

I'd really love to see what our sky would look like to the naked eye if all celestial bodies and formations were simply ratcheted up in brightness. I.e. a "turn the lights on all the way" view.

Someone must have done this already, no??

[neufer]

I'd really love to see what our sky would look like to the naked eye if all celestial bodies and formations were simply ratcheted up in brightness. I.e. a "turn the lights on all the way" view.

Someone must have done this already, no??

It's called a time exposure:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110527.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110524.html
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110520.html

[hpfeil]

Olbers' paradox?

[Jim Leff]

Art, I'm familiar with the notion of time exposures. That's not what I was asking about. First, I'm talking about the entire sky. Second, show me a time exposure revealing the Andromeda Galaxy as several times the size of a full moon (or, more per topic, Great Carina Nebula wider than the moon).

I'd like to see how these structures would appear in full angular view in a complete night sky, if they were sufficiently illuminated. It would have to be an artist rendering or a very clever and precise composite.

[NoelC]

I'd really love to see what our sky would look like to the naked eye if all celestial bodies and formations were simply ratcheted up in brightness. I.e. a "turn the lights on all the way" view.

Someone must have done this already, no??

Check this page out: http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html

-Noel

[orin stepanek]

Check this page out: http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html

-Noel

Hey Noel; What a neat link.

[bystander]

Check this page out: http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html

Hey Noel; What a neat link.

APOD: A Journey Through the Night Sky (2011 May 20)
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=23532

[NoelC]

This is a very pretty image, though I'd love to see the spikes go all the same way.

-Noel

[mactavish]

Another superb job by Gendler. Savor it, folks!