Hubble revisits Carina Nebula - an enormous stellar nursery about 7,500 light-years from Earth

This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope revisits the Carina Nebula, NGC 3372, an enormous stellar nursery about 7,500 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Carina, the Keel. This tempestuous stellar nursery is visible with the unaided eye from Earth's southern hemisphere.

The nebula is an enormous cloud of gas and dust home to several massive and bright stars, including at least a dozen that are 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun. It has many nicknames including the Grand Nebula and the Eta Carinae Nebula for the bright star at its heart. Eta Carinae is one of the most massive and luminous stars known.

The sparkling new Hubble image shows only a small section of the Carina Nebula, located near the center in an area with thinner gas. Due to its enormous size - about 300 light-years - astronomers can only study this nebula in sections, piecing together the data from separate images to get an understanding of the nebula’s large-scale structure and composition.

A new view of an old favorite! This sparkling new image depicts a small section of the Carina Nebula, one of Hubble’s most-imaged objects. It’s about 7,500 light-years away, and busy with cosmic activity – including star birth and death!Read more: https://t.co/Y1Uv489I9v pic.twitter.com/fGOlf3P2n4

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) December 14, 2022

This new image demonstrates Hubble's infrared light imaging capabilities, which detect longer wavelengths of light not scattered by the heavy dust and gas surrounding the stars.