A new image portrays Eta Carinae bringing together observations in various bands of the electromagnetic spectrum from infrareds to X-rays thanks to the Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer space telescopes. Each frequency offers some specific data on this pair of stars especially famous for the so-called Great Eruption that made it particularly bright for many years with a peak in 1843. The data put together also allowed to create 3D models of the Homunculus Nebula and gas and dust clouds surrounding the pair. This is useful research for astronomers to understand the evolution of Eta Carinae and also from an educational point of view within NASA’s Universe of Learning program.
About 7,500 light-years away from Earth, the Eta Carinae system consists of two stars whose mass is estimated to be about 90 and 30 times the Sun’s. It became famous in the 19th century because in 1820 its brightness started increasing reaching its peak in 1843, an event that was called the Great Eruption and made it appear for a few decades as the second brightest star in the sky.
Many years after the Great Eruption, the Eta Carinae system continues to be studied to understand the processes that lead massive stars to violent eruptions to the point of multiplying their brightness and generating nebulae and clouds of gas and dust around them. Only thanks to instruments built in recent decades, it was possible to discover some of the secrets of the Eta Carinae system such as the fact that it’s a binary system and not a single star.
In the past, the data of different instruments have been combined to obtain a more complete picture of Eta Carinae’s situation and to attempt a more precise reconstruction of the Great Eruption’s history. In this case, three space telescopes were used to provide observations in different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum: Spitzer for infrared frequencies, Hubble for visible and ultraviolet frequencies, and Chandra for X-rays.
The picture (A. Fujii, J. Morse (BoldlyGo Inst), N. Smith (U Arizona), Hubble SM4 ERO Team, NASA, ESA, STScI, JPL-Caltech, CXC, ESO, NOAO, AURA, NSF) shows Eta Carinae in the combination of observations made with the Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer space telescopes. The set of data collected allowed astronomers and artists of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) to create 3D models of Eta Carinae. They represent the Homunculus Nebula’s hourglass shape and the gas clouds surrounding the pair of stars.
The gas and dust surrounding Eta Carinae’s stars make it more difficult to study that system, making each new observation potentially decisive for uncovering new secrets. It’s important research to understand the processes that can mark the life of very massive stars that start ejecting materials into interstellar space well before exploding into supernovae. Those are materials that, in the distant future, will contribute to forming new stars and new planets. Research continues and in this case, there’s also an educational purpose thanks to the collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning program.
