Space Image Mystic Mountain Carina Nebula
by Matthias Hauser
Title
Space Image Mystic Mountain Carina Nebula
Artist
Matthias Hauser
Medium
Digital Art - Photograph
Description
Space Image: Mystic mountain in Carina Nebula.
This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, which is even more dramatic than fiction, captures the chaotic activity atop a pillar of gas and dust, three light-years tall, which is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks.
This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into an orbit around the Earth.
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 ionised 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.
Nestled inside this dense mountain are fledgling stars. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting in opposite directions from the pedestal at the top of the image. Another pair of jets is visible at another peak near the centre of the image. These jets, (known as HH 901 and HH 902, respectively, are signposts for new star birth and are launched by swirling gas and dust discs around the young stars, which allow material to slowly accrete onto the stellar surfaces.
Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 observed the pillar on 1-2 February 2010. The colours in this composite image correspond to the glow of oxygen (blue), hydrogen and nitrogen (green), and sulphur (red).
Credit for the web text above:ESA/Hubble
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The original NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope photo is a Public Domain image. For your viewing pleasure this picture is professionally enhanced with a special artistic treatment, including a complete digital repainting. The result preserves the character of the original image but looks like a realistic painting and can be printed in large sizes. The colors are more vibrant and vivid than in the original photography. It will look amazing as large print, canvas print, metal or acrylic print on the wall of your living room, dining room or bedroom. Also a great fit for a man cave, a waiting room or a lobby. Hang this beautiful artwork of our fascinating universe in your home or office!
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Credit for the original image: NASA, ESA, M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
Uploaded
July 27th, 2016
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