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| The Keyhole Nebula (which is also known as the Carina Nebula or NGC 3372) is a glowing cloud of gas, dust, and stars some 8000 light years distant toward the constellation Carina. The Keyhole Nebula contains both bright regions that glow by means of fluorescence emission from ionized gas, and dark regions that obscure background light by means of dense molecular gas and dust. The Keyhole Nebula, which was given its name by the English astronomer Sir John Herschel in the 19th century, is a site of active star formation, and it contains stars that are ten times as hot and 100 times as massive as the Sun. The entire Carina Nebula is some 200 lights years across, although the Keyhole Nebula portion shown here is only about 7 light years across. |
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