December 27, 2010 - Hubble Rides Space Mountain

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The Week in Space

December 27, 2010 - January 2, 2011

Hubble Rides Space Mountain Although Space Mountain may be one of the most popular attractions at every Disney amusement park, the lines are much shorter if you want to enjoy another space mountain recently imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. This turbulent cosmic pinnacle is a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being slowly eaten away by the intense radiation from nearby stars. The chaotic mountain, part of the Carina Nebula some 7,500 light-years away, is also being eaten away from within as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from some of the towering peaks. Scorching radiation and streams of charged particles from super-hot newborn stars nearby are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Livio / Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)