Getting to know the Carina Nebula is indeed a pretty interesting discussion. The VISTA telescope was one of the first to capture this nebula.
The VISTA telescope itself is a space fleet belonging to ESO that has an InfraRed Camera or VIRCAM. As the name suggests, this telescope is tasked with conducting a more detailed survey of all objects in the Milky Way.
The Carina Nebula is one of the many objects that the VISTA telescope has been able to observe. Let’s take a closer look at this nebula.
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Get to know the Carina Nebula more closely, these are the facts!
Nebulae are dust in outer space. Until now, several types of nebulae have been identified and have names, one of which is the Carina Nebula.
The name of these nebulae comes from the location where they were found, namely the constellation Carina. Its exact location is in the Carina-Sagittarius arm which is a small spiral arm in the Milky Way.
The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebula types so that it can be seen without using tools from Earth.
The discovery of this nebula for the first time occurred in 1752 by a French astronomer named Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille.
He discovered the existence of the Carina Nebula while making observations in the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.
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Home of the Giant Star
The Carina Nebula is quite far from Earth. The location of this nebula is at a distance of about 7,500 light from Earth.
For its size, the Carina Nebula stretches for 300 light years.
Despite its massive size, this nebula manages to host more than 14,000 stars.
Some of these stars have giant sizes such as Eta Carinae and several open clusters of stars in classes O to Wolf Rayet.
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Become a Star Making Factory
In addition to being a place for giant stars, the Carina Nebula also turns out to produce many new stars.
That’s why, many people know the Carina Nebula as a star formation factory or star birth trough.
The VISTA telescope managed to find many stars hidden behind the hot gas and dark dust of the nebula.
The number of old stars that become supernova makes the explosive material becomes material for the formation of new stars.
Another thing the VISTA telescope has seen inside the Carina Nebula is the intense presence of radiation from a massive star in a cosmic cloud bubble.
Then the intense radiation causes the surrounding gas to glow brighter. However, in other areas, a dark dust pillar shrouds the newly formed young star.
There is one interesting phenomenon from within the Carina Nebula, namely the battle between stars and nebula dust. Young stars will be shrouded in dust making it difficult to see.
However, in the end the stars still win because the radiation they give off is very large, especially the young ones. You can easily recognize the Carina Nebula by the red color they emit. (R10/HR-Online)
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