
This photograph was taken by The Hubble Space Telescope on February 1st/ 2nd 2010.
The HST is a ESA / NASA collaboration.
This huge cloud (nebula) of Hydrogen molecules, oxygen, hydrogen and, sulphur gas is over three light years high. A single rice grain placed on the image would represent our entire solar system, such is the scale of its enormity.Within the nebula the tremendous power of nature is at work creating new stars, some of them like our sun with newly formed planets whizzing around them.
The Carina nebula is 7,500 light years away from Earth, which means that the light shining from these stars left them 7,500 years ago in time. The nebula is in the southern constellation Carina.
In April The European Space Agency sent me a limited edition print to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the telescope. The Carina Nebula image is HUGE 5ftX8ft , hmmmmm what to do ?? :-) I decided to show it to children and in doing so stimulate interest in learning about stars and star formation.
My first adventure was in St Peters National School in Walkinstown Dublin. The children sat around the nebula and listened to my story of Hubble and this enormous stellar nursery.
Below images of the 5th class boys working on their drawings
Hubble Adventures 2 and 3 coming soon.
One of the jewels the Cassini spacecraft has offered us from its vantage point one billion miles away in space.
Read more here about the image
Below is The Best of Science What's Up for May 2010 from Jane Houston Jones