Pillars in the Carina Nebula (HH901)

  • Released Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Herbig Haro 901 is an immense pillar of gas and dust inside the Carina Nebula, a huge star-forming region in our galaxy. The pillar is several light-years tall and contains a few massive young stars. They shoot out powerful jets that emerge from the cloud. In some cases, the jets create bow-shock patterns similar to the effects of a ship plowing through the ocean. In the visible-light (Hubble) view, very few stars can be seen because the gas and dust block starlight. But in the infrared (Hubble) view, stars become visible and numerous. The visible-light colors emerge from the glow of different gases: oxygen (blue), hydrogen/nitrogen (green), and sulfur (red). The Carina Nebula is approximately 7,500 light years from Earth.



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Video: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI) Image: NASA, ESA,and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)

Release date

This page was originally published on Wednesday, April 11, 2018.
This page was last updated on Monday, December 9, 2024 at 12:00 AM EST.


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