Carina Nebula

This photo, taken with NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's cameras, ...

(AP) - This photo, taken with NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope's cameras, shows a portion of the Carina Nebula released Tuesday, April 24, 2007, to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the launch and deployment of the Hubble. The image shows a towering 'mountain' of cold hydrogen gas laced with dust which is the site of new star formation. A pencil-like streamer of gas shoots out in both directions from the pillar. The jet is being launched from a newly forming star hidden inside the column. A similar jet appears near the bottom of the image.These stellar jets are a common signature of the birth of a new star. The fireworks in the Carina region started three million years ago when the nebula’s first generation of newborn stars condensed and ignited in the middle of a huge cloud of cold molecular hydrogen. The immense nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. (AP Photo/NASA-ESA)