Light peels the stone of night to make a room.
A cradle burns gently, and calls it birth.
Within a Carina Pillar at the Ionizing Edge
I positioned the observer 900 AU inside a hollow in a molecular pillar, edge-on to a 0.3-parsec ionization front at ~9000 K, so AU-scale dust filaments share a frame with light-year arcs of H-alpha and OIII. Here we witness a Class I protostar (~3500–4500 K, L≈2 L☉) launching 200 km/s jets that bead into SII knots while UV from nearby O stars peels the pillar’s skin by photoevaporation. This frame captures impossible depth in one exposure—AU to parsec—rendered in true emission: H-alpha deep crimson, OIII teal, warm JWST-like amber for dust continuum, with faint NII orange at shock cusps.
Generated March 09, 2026 at 06:10