A new close-up view of the violent surroundings of the brightest known star in the Milky Way Galaxy confirms the unstable beast's years are numbered. The study also yields new insight into the huge, eruptive star. Eta Carinae is 100 times more massive than the Sun and 5 million times as luminous. The monster, as astronomers have described it, had a dramatic outburst in 1841, shining for a time as the second brightest star in Earth's night sky despite being about 7,500 light-years away, or roughly 1,000 times farther away than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Eta Car,...
