The Homunculus Nebula

Image Source    3D model of the Homunculus Nebula

The Homunculus Nebula surrounds the stellar system Eta Carinae. It is a bipolar emission and reflection nebula (interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other ionized gases) which is located 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The nebula lies inside a much larger Carina Nebula, which is a large star-forming HII region. Homunculus in Latin means Little Man, is also a small HII region, where the interstellar gases are in an ionized and excited state. The gases absorb most of the light coming out of the extremely luminous central star system. It re-radiates the light in the form of Infrared radiation (IR). The Homunculus Nebula is the brightest object at mid-IR wavelengths.

The Homunculus has two lobes, which are referred to as NW and SE based on their orientation as seen from Earth. The lobes are 7" wide and 5" long and it is hollow with the materials strongly concentrated on the poles. The equatorial skirt contains less dust and little molecular hydrogen than the lobes. The nebula is angled so that SE lobe is closer to us than the NW lobe. The whole nebula is expanding. The lobes contain the most of the material in the nebula and are concentrated towards the poles. Each lobe has a polar "hole" surrounded by a "trench".

The Homunculus Nebula was created as a result of enormous outburst from Eta Carinae. The light from the outburst created a brightening event in the night sky which was visible from Earth in 1841.

Source: Wikipedia

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