Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:This treasure chest isfull of stars.
Thefeatured imagewas obtained withNASA‘sJames Webb Space Telescopeand shows adust pillarin the Carina Nebulainside our Galaxy, roughly 7500 light-years away.
It is formed byinterstellar gasanddust, and shaped by powerfulstellar winds and radiationfrom neighboring stars like the nearby Eta Carinaestellar system which is more luminous than 5 million suns.
The star formation inside the pillar is excavating its head, creating the open lid of the chest.
Astronomers estimate that there are about 70 stars in acompact clusterinside the pillar.
This cluster is now thought to be only around1.3 million years old.
Its bounty of young stars includes a massive star approximately 19 times as massive as the Sun.
More massivestarsare rarer, shine brighter and evolve faster than less massive stars.
They are the shiniest jewels in the treasure chest.
APOD’s main NASA site ismoving: Fromapod.nasa.govtoscience.nasa.gov/apod Tomorrow’s picture:what’s next?