Eta Carinae ala Chandra
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This is a new composite image of Eta Carinae thanks to the Chandra site.
The press release tells of a companion to Eta Carinae, not a very friendly mate to be to say the least.
Here’s a portion of the Chandra press release (read the press release though because it’s good):
Eta Carinae is a mysterious, extremely bright and unstable star located a mere stone’s throw – astronomically speaking – from Earth at a distance of only about 7,500 light years. The star is thought to be consuming its nuclear fuel at an incredible rate, while quickly drawing closer to its ultimate explosive demise. When Eta Carinae does explode, it will be a spectacular fireworks display seen from Earth, perhaps rivaling the moon in brilliance. Its fate has been foreshadowed by the recent discovery of SN2006gy, a supernova in a nearby galaxy that was the brightest stellar explosion ever seen. The erratic behavior of the star that later exploded as SN2006gy suggests that Eta Carinae may explode at any time.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/M.Corcoran et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI
Before I forget, check the Heavens Above site for your chances of an ISS pass. You could be treated to a double spacecraft pass, the Shuttle AND the ISS.
Always love your site, but as a partially colorblind person I’d like to say green type on a red background is almost unreadable. If I didn’t already know about Heavens Above, I probably would have given up figuring it out. Perhaps you use yellow or blue type instead. We CBs miss enough stuff on our own.
on the Eta Carinae article: I was 12 years old
in 1966, two Meteors collidded in space. I
got to see that. It was a once in a lifetime,
sighting, so I thought. It would be nice to see this event.
How’s that Rick? It was actually hard enough to see and I’m not color blind. Sorry about that.
Much appreciated. I can actually see red/green if the area is large enough. In small areas like a link, they just blur together. Thanks for a geat site.
I did get to see the shuttle and ISS last night. Even the their was an overcast sky in SW Missouri, the moon and Venus shone through as well as STS117 and the ISS. A beautiful sight.
[...] Many people have already written about the latest image (pictured here) from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory released yesterday depicting the x-ray emissions produced as material is thrown off of the star and into surrounding gas a dust. Eta Carinae is an extremely unstable nearby star that is very near its death and because of its mass, will end its life in a brilliant supernova explosion. Because of its relatively close proximity to Earth, Eta Carinae will be one of the most spectacular events ever seen by humans. [...]
[...] Many people have already written about the latest image (pictured here) from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory released yesterday depicting the x-ray emissions produced as material is thrown off of the star and into surrounding gas a dust. [...]
Listen carefully dear Tom,
This topic is very important.That Eta carinae is far more than a colossus.That star doubled in brightness in less than 18 month recently.look at the picture,you can see that the star shooting out jets of energy at an enormous rate(that’s the main story).The past is haunting TOM.Do you know, that stars like Eta carinae touched us in the past also(our team research).These massive stars can destroy mankind at any time without being a supernovae,remember the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.An asteroid in Mexico wasn’t guilty alone for that event,star’s like Eta carinae too.The latest thinking of my reserch,goes like this:being an aged giant stars like Eta carinae casts off its outer shell in a last gasp that sends a bubble of matter and energy racing outward.The rest of the star’s matter implodes and jets of material,or perhaps individual blobs of matter are later hurled in two opposite directions,at nearly the speed of light,along the axis of the rotating stellar corpse.These expulsions pierce the Eta carinae’s original bubble,generating a flash of high energy radiation known as gamma ray burst(GRB).Eta carinae’s GRB traveled 1 million year ago(massive animal extinction in ice age) at a blazing speed about 99.999999999999 percent of the light speed which interacted with our atmosphere.That GRB produced a lethal dose of byproducts-particles in the atmosphere called MUONS.Most of the species on earth died by this penetrating muons(muons can go under 2 meters inside the ground)In 1847,eta carinae agitated like an active Volcano and doubled in brightness.I think it’s time for another GRB strike by Eta carinae which produced 8000 years ago and now coming towards us.I call this theory :”COSMIC CANNON OF AN EXPLODING STAR”.
tell me how do you feel about this theory.
——your friend vegeta(a young unknown astrophysicist and computer engineer).