Eta Carinae
The furious expansion of a huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds are captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope comparison image of the supermassive star Eta Carinae. Even though Eta Carinae is more than 8,000 light-years away, structures only 15 billion km across (about the diameter of our solar system) can be distinguished in this sharp Hubble image. Dust lanes, tiny condensations, and strange radial streaks all appear with unprecedented clarity.
A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope "natural color" image of the material surrounding the star Eta Carinae, as imaged by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2).
Credit:About the Image
About the Object
Name: | Eta Carinae |
Type: | Milky Way : Star : Type : Wolf-Rayet |
Distance: | 7500 light years |
Constellation: | Carina |
Category: | Stars |
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Coordinates
Position (RA): | 10 45 3.62 |
Position (Dec): | -59° 41' 4.97" |
Field of view: | 0.85 x 0.85 arcminutes |
Orientation: | North is 186.6° left of vertical |
Colours & filters
Band | Telescope |
---|---|
Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 |