Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:
If
you're looking
for something
to print with that new
3D printer, try out a copy of the Homunculus Nebula.
The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across
but is slightly
scaled
down for printing to
about 1/4 light-nanosecond or 80 millimetres.
The full scale Homunculus surrounds Eta Carinae,
famously unstable
massive stars in a binary system
embedded in the extensive
Carina Nebula
about 7,500 light-years distant.
Between 1838 and 1845, Eta Carinae
underwent the Great Eruption becoming
the second brightest star in planet Earth's night sky
and ejecting the Homunculus Nebula.
The
new 3D model of the still expanding Homunculus
was created by
exploring
the nebula with the European Southern Observatory's
VLT/
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
<
| Archive
| Index
| Search
| Calendar
| RSS
| Education
| About APOD
| Discuss
| >
NASA Official: Phillip Newman
Specific rights apply.
NASA Web
Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of:
ASD at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.