Hubble's Amazing 3-D Look Inside the Dusty Carina Nebula

By Nancy Atkinson - September 16, 2010 at 6:49 AM UTC | Stars

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What can we say? Another Hubble stunner, and just wait until you see flythough video below. This is an absolutely gorgeous look inside the

Carina Nebula

. The radiation from massive stars inside the nebula eats away at cold molecular clouds, creating bizarre, fantasy-like structures. These are one-light-year-tall pillars of cold hydrogen and dust, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, in a composite image from observations taken in 2005 in hydrogen light (light emitted by hydrogen atoms) along with observations taken in oxygen light (light emitted by oxygen atoms) in 2010. What Hubble can see from about 7,500 light-years away is nothing short of breathtaking.

Here's the regular video - in which there are 3-D-type flythough effects:

And grab your 3-D glasses for the full effect:

See more at the

HubbleSite.

Here's an article about

3-D Solar System

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com