The Eta Carina Nebula is the largest diffuse nebula in the sky. Eta Carinae was the site of a giant explosion about 150 years ago. At that time it was one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Although the star released as much visible light as a supernova explosion, it was not destroyed. The Eta Carina nebula is what remains of this explosion. Estimated to be 100 times more massive than our Sun, Eta Carinae may be one of the most massive stars in our Galaxy. It radiates about five million times more power than our Sun. The star remains one of the great mysteries of stellar astronomy.
For this false-color Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) composite, the 8.28 µm band was mapped to the blue channel, the 12.13 µm band was mapped to the green channel, and the 14.65 µm band was mapped to the red channel. This image covers about 5 x 5 degrees in the sky.
Credit: MSX/IPAC/NASA