Amazing Photos of a Colorful Cosmic Cloud

(VNF) - The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) is a stellar nursery 7,500 light-years from Earth. These images show several pillars of gas and dust protruding from the nebula.

Dubbed the "Pillars of Destruction," these regions are being destroyed by radiation from new stars. The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile created these images with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument.

Dark patches seen in this region of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) are called "Bok globules." These small, dark nebulas are dense with gas and dust, so not much light can get through.

Several well-known astronomical objects in and near the Carina Nebula can be seen in this wide field image: to the bottom left of the image is one of the most impressive binary stars in the Universe, Eta Carinae, with the famous Keyhole Nebula just adjacent to the star. The collection of very bright, young stars above and to the right of Eta Carinae is the open star cluster Trumpler 14.

A second open star cluster, Collinder 228 is also seen in the image, just below Eta Carinae. North is up and East is to the left.

The Digitized Sky Survey 2 created this color composite of the Eta Carina Nebula from multiple exposures.

The Carina Nebula glows over the ALMA telescope on the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes. Image released Nov. 30^th, 2015.

Astrophotographer Amit Kamble caught the Eta Carina Nebula on Feb. 19^th, 2015. He is based in Auckland, NZ.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the star cluster Trumpler 14 in the Carina Nebula. One of the largest gatherings of hot, massive and bright stars in the Milky Way, this cluster houses some of the most luminous stars in our entire galaxy.

The Carina Nebula is a star-forming region in the Sagittarius-Carina arm of the Milky Way that is 7,500 light years from Earth. NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory has detected more than 14,000 stars in the region.

Massive stars can wreak havoc on their surroundings, as can be seen in this view of the Carina nebula from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

The spectacular star-forming Carina Nebula has been captured in great detail by the VLT Survey Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. This picture was taken with the help of Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile, during his visit to the observatory on June 5^th, 2012 and released on the occasion of the new telescope's inauguration in Naples on Dec. 6^th, 2012.

This panorama of the Carina Nebula, a region of massive star formation in the southern skies, was taken in infrared light using the HAWK-I camera on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile and released Feb. 8^th, 2012. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars, have emerged.

These highlights are part of the broad panorama of the Carina Nebula, a region of massive star formation in the southern skies, which was taken in infrared light using the HAWK-I camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. It was released Feb. 8^th , 2012.

This image of the Carina nebula reveals the cold dusty clouds from which stars form in the bustling stellar nursery.

( Compiled by VNF )