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APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:08 am
by APOD Robot
Image The Great Nebula in Carina

Explanation: In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina, is home to massive stars and changing nebulas. The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just below the image center, houses several of these massive stars. The entire Carina Nebula, captured here, spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina. Eta Carinae, the most energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically. While Eta Carinae itself maybe on the verge of a supernova explosion, X-ray images indicate that much of the Great Nebula in Carina has been a veritable supernova factory.

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Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:59 am
by Ann
We may compare Ignacio Javier Diaz Bobillo's portrait of the great Carina Nebula with a portrait of more or less the same (but not so wide) region by Wolfgang Promper.

Carina Nebula Wolfgang Promper annotated.png
The Great Carina Nebula. Image: Wolfgang Promper.

The Carina Nebula is the true "Trifid Nebula" in the sky. M20, move over!

Ann

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 12:55 pm
by orin stepanek
https://www.intermountainpet.com/hs-fs/ ... -their-hea
Three dogs a looking! At one silvery star!
hs-2009-25-aw-compass_large_web-4f3cb25-intro.jpg
Was once; one of brightest stars in the sky!
CarinaMosaic_Bobillo_960.jpg

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:03 pm
by AVAO
APOD Robot wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:08 am The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), the bright structure just below the image center, houses several of these massive stars.
Nice HST picture.
Image
Credit:ESA/Hubble

...Unfortunately, the Keyhole Nebula has nothing to do with NGC 3324 ;-)
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1207a/

"Located in the Southern Hemisphere, NGC 3324 is at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), home of the Keyhole Nebula and the active, outbursting star Eta Carinae. The entire Carina Nebula complex is located at a distance of roughly 7,200 light-years, and lies in the constellation Carina."
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/i ... Image.html

Unfortunately there are a lot of websites, that quote the wrong text of the NASA page...

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:31 pm
by johnnydeep
Another painful attempt to map text object to image objects on my part. I suspect I failed. And after AVAO's post, I have no idea where NGC 3324 is in this APOD. How wrong am I?

Eta Carinae and Keyhole Nebula?
Eta Carinae and Keyhole Nebula?

PA - based on the link to NGC 3324 that AVAO posted, it sure looks a lot like the profile of that famous woman with a Spanish sounding name that I can't remember:

Click to view full size image

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 9:58 pm
by Fred the Cat
johnnydeep wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:31 pm Another painful attempt to map text object to image objects on my part. I suspect I failed. And after AVAO's post, I have no idea where NGC 3324 is in this APOD. How wrong am I?

eta carina and keyhole nebula.png

PA - based on the link to NGC 3324 that AVAO posted, it sure looks a lot like the profile of that famous woman with a Spanish sounding name that I can't remember:

Gabriela Mistral?

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:19 pm
by bystander
johnnydeep wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:31 pm Another painful attempt to map text object to image objects on my part. I suspect I failed. And after AVAO's post, I have no idea where NGC 3324 is in this APOD. How wrong am I?

eta carina and keyhole nebula.png

PA - based on the link to NGC 3324 that AVAO posted, it sure looks a lot like the profile of that famous woman with a Spanish sounding name that I can't remember:

https://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/eso1207a.jpg
APOD Robot wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:08 am...
The Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324), ...
Wikipedia wrote: Keyhole Nebula

The Keyhole, or Keyhole Nebula, is a small dark cloud of cold molecules and dust within the Carina Nebula, containing bright filaments of hot, fluorescing gas, silhouetted against the much brighter background nebula. ...

... The Keyhole does not have its own NGC designation. It is sometimes erroneously called NGC 3324, but that catalogue designation refers to a reflection and emission nebula just northwest of the Carina Nebula (or to its embedded star cluster).
...
Annotated map of part of the Carina Nebula showing the location of various objects in the nebula. This view combines multiple ground and Hubble observatory images in a 50-light-year wide (15 pc) view. Credit: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay (STScI)


Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:48 am
by Ann
johnnydeep wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:31 pm Another painful attempt to map text object to image objects on my part. I suspect I failed. And after AVAO's post, I have no idea where NGC 3324 is in this APOD. How wrong am I?


eta carina and keyhole nebula.png


PA - based on the link to NGC 3324 that AVAO posted, it sure looks a lot like the profile of that famous woman with a Spanish sounding name that I can't remember:

Detail from APOD 25 April 2022 annotated.png

Here you are, Johnny. NGC 3324 is in the upper left corner of today's APOD. "She" is also known as the Gabriela Mistral Nebula.

Note that the profile of Gabriela Mistral is "looking to the right" in the image that you posted, but her nebular likeness is "looking up" in the APOD.


Ann

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:40 am
by markb212
To me, the main part of the picture nebula looks like a person, a bit ghostly, with a round head and two dark eyes, head above a narrow torso, right arm outstretched, left arm tucked close in, possibly right leg bent up. And in the upper right corner I see the head of a bearded man in profile with prominent cheek bones a pug nose, and a massive head of red hair. He's looking down to the left, directly at the head of the other person (or ghost).

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 4:05 pm
by johnnydeep
Thanks guys. So I did manage to get my Eta Carinae and Keyhole Nebula labeled correctly, though I still do find it difficult to orient myself among all the various image resolutions, scales, wavelenght filters, orientations, and sometimes even right or left reflections!

Eta Carinae and Keyhole Nebula
Eta Carinae and Keyhole Nebula

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 4:07 pm
by johnnydeep
markb212 wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:40 am To me, the main part of the picture nebula looks like a person, a bit ghostly, with a round head and two dark eyes, head above a narrow torso, right arm outstretched, left arm tucked close in, possibly right leg bent up. And in the upper right corner I see the head of a bearded man in profile with prominent cheek bones a pug nose, and a massive head of red hair. He's looking down to the left, directly at the head of the other person (or ghost).
I'll give you the bearded man - pretty good likeness to Abraham Lincoln if you ask me!

Abe Lincoln in Carinae
Abe Lincoln in Carinae

...but your ghostly man is less convincing. Perhaps a "grayling" alien of some sort.

Click to view full size image

Re: APOD: The Great Nebula in Carina (2022 Apr 25)

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2022 7:20 pm
by AVAO
Ann wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:48 am
Image
Here you are, Johnny. NGC 3324 is in the upper left corner of today's APOD.

Ann
Thank's Ann. Now it is clear to me how NGC 3324 is located spatially.
AVAO wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:03 pm
"Located in the Southern Hemisphere, NGC 3324 is at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), home of the Keyhole Nebula and the active, outbursting star Eta Carinae."

Unfortunately there are a lot of websites, that quote the wrong text of the NASA page...[/size]
In this case, the text on the NASA website is not wrong, but simply misleading. NGC 3372 is the home of the Keyhole Nebula and the active, outbursting star Eta Carinae, not NGC 3324. However, the text in the APOD should be adjusted in the future...