Massive binary star system
Eta Carinae
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Eta Carinae is a double star in the constellation Carina, about 7,500 light-years away. The primary has roughly 100 solar masses, a hotter companion about 30. They orbit each other in about 5.5 years.
In the 1840s Eta Carinae went through a huge outburst (the "Great Eruption") and briefly became the second-brightest star in the sky. The ejected material now forms the Homunculus Nebula, which Hubble has photographed in detail.
The star is unstable and a supernova candidate – when, nobody knows.
Key facts
- Distance
- ≈ 7,500 light-years
- Primary star
- ≈ 100 solar masses
- Orbital period
- ≈ 5.5 years
- Brightness
- ≈ 4.3 mag
Images
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More famous objects
Images: NASA, ESA, ESO, Event Horizon Telescope, Wikimedia Commons. Artist's impressions are labelled as such. Figures from published research, rounded.