February 2023 - Picture of the Month
The Statue Of Liberty Nebula (NGC 3576) in Carina
Another spectacular nebula in the southern skies, or perhaps two, and a mess of designations as you might expect given that this image spans about one and a half degrees of the sky.
My featured nebula seems to have at least six classification numbers associated with it, but the central region of the image, that looks like the Statue of Liberty's standing amongst the chaos of an over-exhuberant fireworks show, as commonly designated as NGC 3576.
NGC 3576 is approximately 80–100 light-years across and lies at a distance of about 9,000 light-years. This makes it a pretty large HII region, and it's packed with star formation, many of which are massive, producing the radiation required to light up all that dust and gas.
To its left in this image is NGC 3603, another HII star forming region, but this one is about 22,000 light-years distant. We see the central core of this nebula which is home to the densest concentration of massive stars in the galaxy. However, this nebula extends much further, in fact it might be the largest HII region in our galaxy, it's considered an example of a starburst region.
So perhaps this month's image should be a double-bill, as it is on Martin's website.
James Whinfrey - Website Administrator.