Posted on 12/04/2014 1:59:03 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: How did the Eta Carinae star system create this unusual expanding nebula? No one knows for sure. About 170 years ago, the southern star system Eta Carinae (Eta Car) mysteriously became the second brightest star system in the night sky. Twenty years later, after ejecting more mass than our Sun, Eta Car unexpectedly faded. Somehow, this outburst appears to have created the Homunculus Nebula. The three-frame video features images of the nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, 2001, and 2008. The Homunculus nebula's center is lit by light from a bright central star, while the surrounding regions are expanding lobes of gas laced with filaments of dark dust. Jets bisect the lobes emanating from the central stars. Expanding debris includes streaming whiskers and bow shocks caused by collisions with previously existing material. Eta Car still undergoes unexpected outbursts, and its high mass and volatility make it a candidate to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime in the next few million years.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: Hubble, NASA, ESA; ]Processing & Copyright: First Light, J. L. Dauvergne, P. Henarejos
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Not that there's anything wrong with that ....
The constellations Carina, Puppis, and Vela are the wreckage of the former constellation Argo, which was divided up after the Greek alphabet designations have been given to the brightest stars. In theory the 24 brightest stars in a constellation are designated by letters of the alphabet starting with Alpha, but in the case of these 3 constellations they have to share the 24 letters. Sort of like kindergarten in the sky.
Eta is the seventh letter of the alphabet so Eta Carinae should have been the 7th-brightest star in Argo--but these designations were made before the advanced equipment of today was available so they aren't always right about relative brightness, and some stars have a rebellious streak in them and don't always stay the same brightness.
That’s strange. When I first loaded this page the animation was running but then it stopped on the 2008 frame. Going to the website doesn’t help. I find no permissions denied to the site. Rats!
Wonder what held it back?
It did that with me as well, I think the file is set to run once only (that’s a GIF option).
Thanks for the explanation. That’s a first for me. Oh, well, I’ll catch the next expanding nebula. ;-)
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