File:Stars Bursting to Life in Chaotic Carina Nebula.jpg

English: These two images of a pillar of star birth were released on September 9, 2009, to demonstrate the capabilities of the upgraded and repaired Hubble Space Telescope. Specifically, the pictures demonstrate the range of the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), installed aboard Hubble during Servicing Mission 4. It sees visible, infrared, and ultraviolet wavelengths.

These images show how observations taken in visible and in infrared light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal dramatically different and complementary views of a celestial object.

Composed of gas and dust, this pillar resides in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. The visible-light image (top), shows the end of the 3-light-year-long pillar, bathed in the glow of light from hot, massive stars off the top of the image.

In the image at bottom, showing infrared light, the dense column and the surrounding greenish-colored gas all but disappear. Only a faint outline of the pillar remains. Infant stars inside the pillar appear to emerge.

Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 observed the Carina Nebula July 24 through July 30, 2009. These Hubble observations of the Carina Nebula are part of the Hubble Servicing Mission 4 Early Release Observations.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team