Doomed Star's Outburst in 3-D

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Astronomers Bring The Third Dimension To A Doomed Star's Outburst

In the middle of the 19th century, the massive binary system Eta Carinae underwent an eruption that ejected at least 10 times the sun's mass and made it the second-brightest star in the sky. Now, a team of astronomers has used extensive new observations to create the first high-resolution 3-D model of the expanding cloud produced by this outburst.

"Our model indicates that this vast shell of gas and dust has a more complex origin than is generally assumed," said Thomas Madura, a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a member of the study team. "For the first time, we see evidence suggesting that intense interactions between the stars in the central binary played a significant role in sculpting the nebula we see today."

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Eta Carinae's Homunculus Nebula Now in 3D

NASA Goddard astrophysicists Ted Gull and Tom Madura discuss Eta Carinae and their new model of the Homunculus Nebula, a shell of gas and dust ejected during the star's mid-19th century eruption.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Source: NASA Goddard - Multimedia