Back Nebulosa Homúnculo AST Nebulosa de l'Homuncle Catalan Nebulosa Homúnculo Spanish Homunkulu nebulosa Basque Réaltnéal Duineach Irish Nebulosa Omuncolo Italian 人形星雲 Japanese Гомункулус (тұмандық) Kazakh 호문쿨루스 성운 Korean Homunculusnevel Dutch
| Emission nebula | |
|---|---|
| Reflection nebula | |
 | |
| Observation data: J2000 epoch | |
| Right ascension | 10h 45m 03.6s[1] |
| Declination | −59° 41′ 04″[1] |
| Distance | 7,500 ly |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 6.21 (-0.8–7.9) (including the central star) |
| Apparent dimensions (V) | 18"[2] |
| Constellation | Carina |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Radius | 0.29[2] ly |
| Notable features | Bipolar nebula |
The Homunculus Nebula is a bipolar emission and reflection nebula surrounding the massive star system Eta Carinae, about 7,500 light-years (2,300 parsecs) from Earth. The nebula is embedded within the much larger Carina Nebula, a large star-forming H II region. From the Latin homunculus meaning Little Man, the nebula consists of gas which was ejected from Eta Carinae during the Great Eruption, which occurred ~7,500 years before it was observed on Earth, from 1838 to 1845.[3] It also contains dust which absorbs much of the light from the extremely luminous central stellar system and re-radiates it as infra-red (IR). It is the brightest object in the sky at mid-IR wavelengths.[4]
Within the Homunculus is a smaller Little Homunculus, and within that a shell of shocked material from stellar winds that has been called Baby Homunculus.[2]
- ^ a b Høg, E.; Fabricius, C.; Makarov, V. V.; Urban, S.; Corbin, T.; Wycoff, G.; Bastian, U.; Schwekendiek, P.; Wicenec, A. (2000). "The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 355: L27. Bibcode:2000A&A...355L..27H. doi:10.1888/0333750888/2862.
- ^ a b c Abraham, Zulema; Falceta-Gonçalves, Diego; Beaklini, Pedro P. B. (2014). "Η Carinae Baby Homunculus Uncovered by A/km/kmLMA". The Astrophysical Journal. 791 (2): 95. arXiv:1406.6297. Bibcode:2014ApJ...791...95A. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/791/2/95. S2CID 62893264.
- ^ Teodoro, M.; Damineli, A.; Sharp, R. G.; Groh, J. H.; Barbosa, C. L. (2008). "Near-infrared integral field spectroscopy of the Homunculus nebula around η Carinae using Gemini/CIRPASS". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 387 (2): 564. arXiv:0804.0240. Bibcode:2008MNRAS.387..564T. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13264.x. S2CID 2460614.
- ^ Smith, Nathan (2012). "All Things Homunculus". Eta Carinae and the Supernova Impostors. Astrophysics and Space Science Library. Vol. 384. pp. 145–169. Bibcode:2012ASSL..384..145S. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-2275-4_7. ISBN 978-1-4614-2274-7. S2CID 6275803.