Fact Sheet
Star Factory
Thousands of stars have been born from this vast cloud of gas and dust known as the Carina Nebula, and thousands more are taking shape today. The largest stars are dozens of times as massive as the Sun, so they shine thousands of times brighter. These hot, massive stars are causing the gas in the nebula to shine like the inside of a fluorescent bulb, while stripping away some of the gas and shutting down the process of starbirth. This infrared image is from the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope. [Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/N. Smith (UC-Boulder)]
|