Back Nebulosa Homúnculo AST Nebulosa de l'Homuncle Catalan Nebulosa Homúnculo Spanish Homunkulu nebulosa Basque سحابی آدمک Persian Réaltnéal Duineach Irish Nebulosa Omuncolo Italian 人形星雲 Japanese Гомункулус (тұмандық) Kazakh 호문쿨루스 성운 Korean
| 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.