Today’s space picture shows the Carina Nebula, some 7,500 light years away.

It was produced by the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere by combining shots taken through six different filters on the Wide Field Imager in Chile. ESO says the Nebula is “where strong winds and powerful radiation from an armada of massive stars are creating havoc in the large cloud of dust and gas from which the stars were born”.

The big bright spot on this image is the star Eta Carinae, which ESO calls “highly unstable, and prone to violent outbursts”. Back in 1842 Eta Carinae had its “most notable” Christian Bale moment and for a few years was the second brightest star in the sky.

Phil Plait on the Bad Astronomy blog notes:

… one day it’ll blow, and when it does, well, yikes. It’s one of the most luminous and massive stars in the galaxy, and there’s a small but finite chance that it’ll go all gamma-ray burst on us some day. Happily, it’s not aimed at us if it does, but even as a plain old supernova it’s a terrifying object. It’s a binary, and one of the stars must have about 100 times the mass of the Sun, pretty much at the theoretical limit of how massive a star can be without tearing itself apart.

I’ve written about black holes, galaxies colliding, and even the eventual fate of the Universe. I tell you this to put in perspective that objectively, Eta Car scares the crap out of me.

More coverage

A colorful view of the Carina Nebula – USA Today

Image: ESO