{"id":630416,"date":"2026-08-10T16:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/630416\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T16:23:16","slug":"webb-finds-stellar-treasure-chest-in-carina-nebula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/630416\/","title":{"rendered":"Webb Finds Stellar \u2018Treasure Chest\u2019 in Carina Nebula"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stunning new image from the NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals a comet-shaped cloud in the Carina Nebula hiding a cluster of about 70 young stars, including a rare giant of O-type nearly 19 times as massive as the Sun.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

This Webb image shows the Treasure Chest, a cometary globule located within the famous Carina Nebula. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA \/ CSA \/ Webb \/ M. Reiter \/ M.H. \u00d6zsara\u00e7.<\/p>\n

The Carina Nebula<\/a> is located approximately 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina.<\/p>\n

Also known as NGC 3372 and Caldwell 92, the nebula was discovered in the 1750s by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille.<\/p>\n

The Carina Nebula is a dynamic, evolving cloud of thinly spread interstellar gas and dust.<\/p>\n

Spanning roughly 260 light-years, it is one of the Milky Way Galaxy\u2019s largest star-forming regions and is easily visible to the unaided eye under dark skies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Carina Nebula houses<\/a> some of the most massive stars in our Galaxy as well as tens of thousands of protostars, offering a valuable opportunity to understand how stars shape their neighborhoods,\u201d the Webb astronomers said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feature highlighted in the new image, aptly called the Treasure Chest, looks right at home in this celestial sculpture garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Treasure Chest is what\u2019s known as a cometary globule, an isolated cloud of gas and dust with a dense, dark head and a sweeping tail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe object contains a compact cluster of young stars, which are responsible for the otherworldly glow coming from within it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The astronomers captured the image of the Treasure Chest using Webb\u2019s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Treasure Chest\u2019s cluster contains about 70 stars, the most massive of which is a rare O-type star roughly 19 times as massive as the Sun,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe star cluster is likely around 1.3 million years old, though earlier estimates found it to be as young as just 100,000 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of its youth, the cluster is still deeply embedded within the dusty clouds of the Treasure Chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe individual stars in the cluster are wrapped up in dust as well; astronomers have found evidence that many of these stars are surrounded by circumstellar disks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, the brilliant starlight from these young stars will dissipate the surrounding cloud and reveal the entire cluster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key to the Treasure Chest\u2019s sculptural shape lies outside this image: just 39 light-years to the northwest, as measured on the sky, sits Eta Carinae<\/a>, the most luminous object in the entire Carina Nebula.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEta Carinae is a star system containing at least two stars, one of which is 100 times as massive as the Sun. This star alone is about 5 million times as luminous as the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding to this intense radiation is the nearby star cluster Trumpler 16, which also contains several extremely hot massive stars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stunning new image from the NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals a comet-shaped cloud in the Carina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[266347,266348,15441,18,6145,266349,266350,19,15444,17,1024,16274,266351,266352,77527,133,11186,33050,15450],"class_list":["post-630416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-carina-nebula","tag-cometary-globule","tag-csa","tag-eire","tag-esa","tag-eta-carinae","tag-giant-star","tag-ie","tag-ir","tag-ireland","tag-nasa","tag-nebula","tag-ngc-3372","tag-o-type-star","tag-protostar","tag-science","tag-star","tag-star-cluster","tag-webb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117072142417076346","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}