Explanation:
A jewel of the southern sky,
the Great Carina Nebula, aka NGC 3372,
spans over 300 light-years.
Near the upper right of
this
expansive skyscape, it is
much larger than the more northerly
Orion Nebula.
In fact, the Carina Nebula is one of our
galaxy's largest star-forming
regions and home to young, extremely massive stars,
including the still
enigmatic variable Eta Carinae,
a star with well over 100 times the mass
of the Sun.
Nebulae near the center of the 10 degree wide field include
NGC 3576 and
NGC 3603.
Near center at the top of the frame is open star cluster
NGC 3532,
the Wishing Well Cluster.
More compact,
NGC 3766,
the Pearl Cluster, can be spotted at the left.
Anchoring the lower left of the cosmic canvas is another large
star-forming region,
IC 2948 with embedded
star cluster IC 2944.
That region is
popularly known as
the Running
Chicken Nebula.
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