Hubble images doomed star Eta Carinae

17 Jun 2002

A huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds are captured in stunning new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of one of the most massive stars in our Galaxy, the supermassive Eta Carinae. Eta Carinae, located more than 8,000 light years away, was the site of a giant outburst about 150 years ago, when it became one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. A combination of image processing techniques reveal astonishing detail of the exploding star, which is radiating about five million times more power than our Sun.For more photos, go the URL below.