Carina Nebula

Artist Michael Benson (American, born 1962)

Artist Jet Propulsion Laboratory (20th Century)

Date2012

Mediumchromogenic print

Dimensionssheet: 126.4 × 261.6 cm (49 3/4 × 103 in.)
frame: 135.9 × 270.8 cm (53 1/2 × 106 5/8 in.)

ClassificationsPhotographs

Credit LineStoddard Acquisition Fund

Terms

Object number2013.4

DescriptionThe Carina Nebula, over 7500 light years away, is among the brightest parts of the Milky Way visible from Earth. It is an area teeming with new and dying stars – clouds of dust and gas, eroding dust pillars sculpted by radiation from powerful stars, and lobes of stellar material. The region is home to about a dozen massive O-type blue stars as well as Eta Carinae, a stellar system with a hyper-giant luminous blue variable star with an estimated mass roughly 100 to 150 times that of the sun (and over five million times brighter).

Working with the same archives of image data as planetary scientists and astronomers, Benson’s explorations are focused on aesthetic, not scientific discoveries. Taking raw image data acquired for research purposes, Benson edits, combines, composites, and repurposes it for his photography. The resulting image combines image data from 54 observations made at different times and places: 48 conducted in Earth orbit in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope, and six made in Chile’s Atacama Desert in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 using the European Southern Observatory’s 2.2 meter telescope.

Label TextThe Carina Nebula, over 7500 light years away, is among the brightest parts of the Milky Way visible from Earth. It is an area teeming with new and dying stars – clouds of dust and gas, eroding dust pillars sculpted by radiation from powerful stars, and lobes of stellar material. The region is home to about a dozen massive O-type blue stars as well as Eta Carinae, a stellar system with a hyper-giant luminous blue variable star with an estimated mass roughly 100 to 150 times that of the sun (and over five million times brighter). Working with the same archives of image data as planetary scientists and astronomers, Benson’s explorations are focused on aesthetic, not scientific discoveries. Taking raw image data acquired for research purposes, Benson edits, combines, composites, and repurposes it for his photography. The resulting image combines image data from 54 observations made at different times and places: 48 conducted in Earth orbit in 2005 by the Hubble Space Telescope, and six made in Chile’s Atacama Desert in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 using the European Southern Observatory’s 2.2 meter telescope.

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