The Heart of The Carina Nebula | SSO Europa Telescope

The Heart of The Carina Nebula | SSO Europa Telescope

This first light image from the Europa telescope at the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) shows the heart of the Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) is a large, complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina, located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The nebula is approximately 8,500 light-years (2,600 pc) from Earth.

The SSO is installed at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in the vast Atacama Desert, Chile, and consists of four 1-meter planet-hunting telescopes. The project’s telescopes are named after Jupiter’s Galilean moons, and are neighbors of ESO's Very Large Telescope and VISTA. SPECULOOS will focus on detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs.

Credit: SPECULOOS Team/E. Jehin/European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Release Date: December 5, 2018

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