Eta Carinae

One of the most massive stars known. In the 1840s it threw off more than ten Suns’ worth of gas and briefly became the second-brightest star in the sky; the two lobes are that outburst.

The picture hangs at that distance facing Earth, as large as it is on the sky; how deep the object is cannot be seen, so it is flat.

Taken by

Hubble Space Telescope

Picture spans

about 1.5 ly

From the Sun

7,500 light-years

RA / Dec

161.27° / -59.68°

Credit

NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona, Tucson), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute, New York)

Eta Carinae, formerly known as η Argus, is a stellar system containing at least two stars with a combined luminosity greater than five million times that of the Sun, located around 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Previously a 4th-magnitude star, it brightened in 1837 to become brighter than Rigel, marking the start of its so-called "Great Eruption".

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