Trumpler 14

Trumpler 14 is located 8,000 light-years away in the Carina Nebula, a huge star formation region. This 500,000-year-old star cluster has one of the highest concentrations of massive stars in our entire Milky Way Galaxy.

A small nugget of cold molecular hydrogen, called a Bok globule, is silhouetted subtly against the star cluster.

Furiously burning their hydrogen fuel, the cluster’s blue-white stars will soon explode as supernovae in a few million years. The combination of stellar ‘winds’ and supernova blast waves will carve out cavities for a new generation of stars to be born.

This image was made with data from 2005 and 2006 taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. It combines blue, visible, and infrared broadband filters that combine with filters that isolate the emissions of elements such as oxygen and nitrogen from the glowing gas that surrounds the cluster.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Maíz Apellániz (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Spain); Acknowledgment: N. Smith (University of Arizona)

For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Paul Morris: Lead Producer


Music credit: “Do What You Love” by Sinan Hosgel [GEMA] via Berlin Production Music [GEMA] and Universal Production Music