''Mystic Mountain'' is a photograph and a term for a region in the
Carina Nebula imaged by the
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...
. The view was captured by the then-new
Wide Field Camera 3
The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is the Hubble Space Telescope's last and most technologically advanced instrument to take images in the visible spectrum. It was installed as a replacement for the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 during the first s ...
, though the region was also viewed by the previous generation instrument. The new view celebrated the telescope's 20th anniversary of being in space in 2010.
Mystic Mountain contains multiple
Herbig–Haro object
Herbig–Haro (HH) objects are bright patches of nebula, nebulosity associated with newborn stars. They are formed when narrow jets of partially plasma (physics), ionised gas ejected by stars collide with nearby clouds of gas and dust at several ...
s where
nascent stars are firing off jets of gas which interact with surrounding clouds of gas and dust.
This region is about away from Earth. The pillar measures around .
The name was influenced by the works of
H. P. Lovecraft.
See also
*''
Pillars of Creation
''Pillars of Creation'' is a photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of elephant trunks of interstellar gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, in the Serpens constellation, some from Earth. These elephant trunks had been discovered by Jo ...
'', another noted Hubble image
*
List of deep fields
In astronomy, a deep field is an image of a portion of the sky taken with a very long exposure time, in order to detect and study faint objects. The depth of the field refers to the apparent magnitude or the flux of the faintest objects that can b ...
*
HD 93129
HD 93129 is a triple star system in the Carina Nebula, with all three components being hot O class stars amongst the most luminous stars in the Milky Way. It is the dominant member of the Trumpler 14 star cluster, a young star cluste ...
*
Trumpler 14
Trumpler 14 (''Tr 14'') is an open cluster with a diameter of , located within the inner regions of the Carina Nebula, approximately from Earth. Together with the nearby Trumpler 16, they are the main clusters of the Carina OB1 stellar associat ...
*
List of Hubble anniversary images This is a list of images released to celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's anniversaries. They celebrate its "birthday" when it was launched into orbit on April 24, 1990, by the crew of Space Shuttle ''Discovery''.
15th (2005)
The 15th anniversa ...
References
External links
"Starry-Eyed Hubble Celebrates 20 Years of Awe and Discovery"by Hubblesite.org (20th Anniversary collection)
"Star-forming regions in the Carina Nebula"by Hubblesite.org (17th Anniversary collection)
{{NASA space program
2010 in science
2010 works
2010s photographs
Carina (constellation)
Carina Nebula
Hubble Space Telescope images
Sky regions