Carina in the PinkThe Carina Nebula glows hot pink above Chile's Chiliques volcano in a recent picture.The nebula sits about 7,500 light-years away in the constellation of the same name. The nebula gets its red and purple hues from hot hydrogen gas interacting with ultraviolet radiation from the nebula's massive young stars.The nebula is also home to one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way galaxy, Eta Carinae, a tumultuous ball of gas roughly a hundred times more massive than our sun.(Read more about Eta Carinae and its violent outbursts.)
Photograph by Babak Tafreshi, TWAN

Space Pictures This Week: Pink Nebula, Moon Map, More

See an hourglass-shaped nebula, a space "garbage truck," and an "amazing" new map of the moon—among this week's best space pictures.

November 20, 2011