The Carina Nebula is a large bright nebula, composed of gas and dust, lies at an estimated distance of between 6,500 and 10,000 lightyears from Earth. The pillar is three lightyears in length, with the total length of the column of about 10 lightyears and astronomers estimating that the jet is moving at speeds of up to 850,000 miles an hour.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope image, taken in visible light, shows an eerie pillar of gas and dust. It is the birthplace and incubator for infant stars and is bathed in a majestic glow of colour and luminosity, but what it doesn’t show is the driving, dynamic, scorching radiation and furious winds sculpting the pillar. Streamers of gas and dust can be seen flowing off the top of the structure.
Considering this galaxy is so faint and is barely visible to all but the largest telescopes, Hubble has given us the opportunity to wonder and observe unparalleled detail across many different wavelengths with unequalled resolution. Slowly the secrets of the Universe are being uncovered, one by one.
The distances in space are unimaginably vast beyond human comprehension. The farthest objects ever viewed were photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope and are thought to be about 12 billion (with a ‘b’) lightyears away. Is it possible to comprehend the sheer immensity of this? ..or to imagine what lies beyond!
Our nearest star is Alpha Centauri, a triple-star system that is visible from the southern hemisphere, four lightyears away. The Voyager spacecraft, travelling at 40,000mph would take 70,000 years to reach that particular star…
… the Carina Nebula is 10,000 lightyears away!
Enjoy the view; it may not be there anymore!
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” – Carl Sagan
Pigment inks on 271gsm satin paper, professionally hand-bonded onto a 5mm cast acrylic panel. Currently available in two sizes:
- 24″ (w) × 24″ (h)
- 12″ (w) × 12″ (h)
Each acrylic print comes ready to hang.
