The Astronomy Picture of the Day published September 17, 2026 featured a James Webb Space Telescope image of a dust pillar in the Carina Nebula, within our Galaxy and roughly 7,500 light-years away. The explanation describes the pillar as formed by interstellar gas and dust and shaped by stellar winds and radiation from neighboring stars, including the nearby Eta Carinae system, which it says is more luminous than 5 million suns.

According to the accompanying text, star formation inside the pillar is excavating its head, producing a shape likened to an open treasure chest lid. Astronomers estimate about 70 stars in a compact cluster inside the pillar, which is now thought to be only around 1.3 million years old. The cluster's young stars include a massive star approximately 19 times as massive as the Sun.

The entry, credited to ESA/Webb, NASA and CSA, with M. Reiter, is presented as a source-date snapshot of those estimates. It also noted that APOD's main NASA site was moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.