Carina, Carina, Where You Been So Long . . .

This amazing picture was snapped by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, showing “activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars.” For the rest of us, it is a picture of a cool colorful space cloud. NASA is celebrating 20 years with Hubble with its greatest hits series.

You can visit this particular space tourist trap by going to the Carina Nebula, just 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina.

NASA explains: “Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionized gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. The denser parts of the pillar are resisting being eroded by radiation much like a towering butte in Utah’s Monument Valley withstands erosion by water and wind.”

I recommend singing Corina, Corina while viewing the images:

Corina, Corina where you been so long
Corina, Corina where you been so long
I ain’t had no lovin’ since you’ve been gone

Well I love Corina, tell the world I do
I love Corina, tell the world I do
Just a little more loving let your heart be true

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