                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2021 May 2

                         Clouds of the Carina Nebula
                   Image Credit & Copyright: John Ebersole

   Explanation: What forms lurk in the mists of the Carina Nebula? The
   dark ominous figures are actually molecular clouds, knots of molecular
   gas and dust so thick they have become opaque. In comparison, however,
   these clouds are typically much less dense than Earth's atmosphere.
   Featured here is a detailed image of the core of the Carina Nebula, a
   part where both dark and colorful clouds of gas and dust are
   particularly prominent. The image was captured in mid-2016 from Siding
   Spring Observatory in Australia. Although the nebula is predominantly
   composed of hydrogen gas -- here colored green, the image was assigned
   colors so that light emitted by trace amounts of sulfur and oxygen
   appear red and blue, respectively. The entire Carina Nebula, cataloged
   as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light years and lies about 7,500
   light-years away in the constellation of Carina. Eta Carinae, the most
   energetic star in the nebula, was one of the brightest stars in the sky
   in the 1830s, but then faded dramatically.

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