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.

An article published in the journal “Astronomy and Astrophysics” reports observations of stellar jets cataloged as MHO 2147 and MHO 1502 emitted by two protostellar sources. A team of researchers used the Gemini South telescope in Chile to study those jets, which have an appearance that is likely influenced by the gravitational pull of companion stars. The quality of the observations is due to the adaptive optics system designed to compensate for the distortion caused by the Earth’s atmosphere.

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the observations of the supernova cataloged as SN 2020tlf, the first case in which astronomers observed a red supergiant star in the period immediately preceding the explosion. A team of researchers used the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii to detect the changes taking place in the red supergiant in the summer of 2020 and then used the NIRES and DEIMOS instruments of the Keck Observatory, also in Hawaii, for the first spectrographic detections of the supernova emissions in the fall of 2020. Subsequently, other instruments added data on the supernova. Astronomers expected a red supergiant to go through a quiet period before exploding, but SN 2020tlf’s progenitor emitted strong radiation in the last year of its life.