The star system of Eta Carinae is famous for its ‘Great Eruption‘, an outburst that — for three days in March 1843 — made it the second-brightest object in the sky.
The flare-up was so luminous, in fact, that it became a staple beacon of navigation for Victorian mariners in the southern hemisphere from 1837 into the 1850s.
Now, an incredible visualisation from NASA has revealed in stunning detail the hourglass-shaped nebula and surrounding gas clouds released by the explosion.
The digital model — built from data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory — shows the system in visible, ultraviolet and X-ray light.
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The star system of Eta Carinae is famous for its ‘Great Eruption’, an outburst that — for three days in March 1843 — made it the second-brightest object in the sky. Now, an incredible visualisation from NASA (pictured) has revealed in stunning detail the hourglass-shaped nebula and surrounding gas clouds released by the explosion
The visualisation was created by astronomer Frank Summers of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland and his team of researchers and artists for NASA’s Universe of Learning program.
‘The team did such an amazing job representing the volumetric layers that viewers can immediately and intuitively comprehend the complex structure around Eta Carina,’ said Professor Summers.
‘We can not only tell the story of the Great Eruption, but also showcase the resulting nebula in three dimensions.’
Looking at Eta Carinae in different wavelengths reveals, in the visible spectrum, the twin lobes of the Homunculus nebula that was spewed out during the Great Eruption and, in the ultraviolet, some of the light being emitted from the stars within.
(Together, the stellar binary have a luminosity that is more than five million times that of the Sun — and the system would appear brighter in our sky today if it were not for the cloud of gas and dust in the surrounding nebula that obscures it from view.)
Around the nebula can also be seen the characteristic emissions of hydrogen gas that was also released during the outburst, along with X-ray emissions that are indicative of the Great Eruption having had a high-energy component.
Motions in these outer layers, the team said, reveal that Eta Carinae has, in fact, had multiple explosive outbursts.
The system shines far brightest, however, at longer wavelengths, the researchers explained, as the Homunculus Nebula absorbs the light from the stars and the re-radiates it out as infrared light.
In fact, in the infrared part of the spectrum, Eta Carinae is the brightest source of light in the whole night sky — and this radiation, the team said, impacts the larger Carina Nebula, the vast star-forming region in which the system resides.
‘Spitzer’s infrared image lets us peer through the dust that obscures our view in visible light to reveal the intricate details and extent of the Carina Nebula around this brilliant star,’ said team member and visualisation scientist Robert Hurt of Caltech.
‘The team did such an amazing job representing the volumetric layers that viewers can immediately and intuitively comprehend the complex structure around Eta Carina,’ said astronomer Frank Summers of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Pictured: the Homunculus Nebula around Eta Carina can be seen in the visible spectrum
According to NASA, the visualisation and its associated assets will be used to promote astronomy-themed learning.
‘We can take these models like the one for Eta Carinae and use them in 3D printing and augmented reality programs,’ said team member and visualisation scientist Kim Arcand of the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
‘This means more people can put their hands on the data — literally and virtually —and this makes for better learning and engagement.’
More info on the visualisation can be found on the NASA’s Universe of Learning and Hubble Space Telescope websites.