unknownskywalker:

VLT takes most detailed infrared image of the Carina Nebula

Deep in the heart of the southern Milky Way lies a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula. It is about 7500 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Carina. This cloud of glowing gas and dust is one of the closest incubators of very massive stars to the Earth and includes several of the brightest and heaviest stars known.

Although this nebula is spectacular in normal visible-light, many of its secrets are hidden behind thick clouds of dust. To penetrate this veil astronomers used the power of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, revealing many previously hidden features. Hundreds of individual images have been combined to create this picture, which is the most detailed infrared mosaic of the nebula ever taken.

The dazzling star Eta Carinae appears at the lower left of the new picture. It is surrounded by clouds of gas that are glowing under the onslaught of fierce ultraviolet radiation. Across the image there are also many compact blobs of dark material that remain opaque even in the infrared. These are the dusty cocoons in which new stars are forming.

Over the last few million years this region of the sky has formed large numbers of stars both individually and in clusters. The bright star cluster close to the centre of the picture is called Trumpler 14. And towards the left side of the image a small concentration of stars that appear yellow can be seen. This grouping of stars cannot be seen in visible light at all.