Carina Nebula

This image shows a giant star-forming region in the southern sky known as the Carina Nebula and combines the light from three different filters, which traces emission from oxygen (blue), hydrogen (green), and sulfur (red). The color is also representative of the temperature in the ionized gas: blue is relatively hot and red is cooler. The picture is a composite of several exposures made in February 2000 with the Curtis Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile.

About the colours

Blue: oxygen Green: hydrogen Red: sulfur

About the data

The science team studying the Eta Car light echo was led by A. Rest (STScI). This color image of a portion of the Carina Nebula was taken with the CTIO Curtis Schmidt telescope on February 25, 2000. The filter and color assignments are as follows: oxygen (blue), hydrogen (green), and sulfur (red).