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Detailed Images of the Carina Nebula Captured by Astronomers




Near-infrared images of the Carina Nebula with the same resolution expected of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, have been captured by astronomers via the Gemini South telescope in Chile.

Carina Nebula, as defined by the Dublin City University, is a large and complex area containing massive stars and dusty molecular clouds in the constellation Carina in which stars are born.

Patrick Hartigan, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University; Andrea Isella, an associate professor of physics and astronomy and of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University; and Turlough Downes, a professor of mathematics and astrophysics at Dublin City University are the people behind the sharp photos of the nebula.


They have gathered the images at the international Gemini Observatory, a program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, for over ten (10) hours in January 2018. It shows part of a molecular cloud about 7,500 light-years from Earth, a cloud of dust and gas in the Carina Nebula known as the “Western Wall.”

“The results are stunning. We see a wealth of detail never observed before along the edge of the cloud, including a long series of parallel ridges that may be produced by a magnetic field, a remarkable almost perfectly smooth sine wave and fragments at the top that appear to be in the process of being sheared off the cloud by a strong wind.”

– Patrick Hartigan on Rice University’s October 5, 2020 Press Release

“This region is the nearest to Earth where very massive stars are forming and the images are truly breathtaking. They give us real insight into what is going on in massive star forming regions.”

– Turlough Downes on Dublin City University’s October 5, 2020 Press Release



Due to turbulence in the atmosphere, images of star-forming regions taken from Earth are usually blurred. However, since near-infrared light penetrates the outer layers of dust in molecular clouds, as explained by Hartigan, near-infrared cameras like the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager can see what lies beneath.

With this technology, Hartigan’s team has taken photos of Carina Nebula with roughly (10) times the resolution of images taken from ground-based telescopes that don’t use adaptive optics.

The study made by the researches which they call “A JWST Preview: Adaptive-optics Images of H2, Br-γ, and K-continuum in Carina’s Western Wall”  is published online in Astrophysical Journal Letters on October 5, 2020.

Source: Science Alert, Rice University, NSF’s NOIRLab, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Rice University YouTube Channel, Dublin City University

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