A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, spans over 300 light-years making it one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. The Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye though at a distance of 7,500. This gorgeous close-up reveals remarkable details of the region's central glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the stars of open cluster Trumpler 14 (above and left of center) and the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta Carinae is the brightest star, centered here just below the dusty Keyhole Nebula. 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.

Imaging System: Takahashi TOA 150, Astrophysics 1600, FLI ML16200
Exposure – SHO, 11.5 hours
Location/Date – El Sauce, Chile/2020