NG: Homunculus Nebula from Gemini South
Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:26 am
Image courtesy J.C. Martin et. al., Gemini Observatory/AURA
National Geographic wrote:January 4, 2010--A stellar "autopsy" has revealed a previously unseen part of the Homunculus Nebula, the lobes of gas and dust surrounding the dying star Eta Carinae. This newly released infrared picture, taken by the Gemini South telescope in Chile, shows a faint blue glow under the nebula's "skin"--proof of an internal structure that researchers have dubbed the Little Homunculus.
The never before seen structure surprised astronomers, one of whom likened the discovery to finding "a third lung, an extra liver, or something more exotic" in the body of a murder victim.