Great Eruption From 2 Massive Stars 180 Years Ago Featured in NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory’s Stunning Video

Observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory gave us a glimpse of what happens during a star eruption using a collection of 20-year data. The incident reportedly happened nearly 200 years ago.

Star Eruption From Eta Carinae in Time Lapse Video

A breathtaking new film of a star eruption that occurred about 180 years ago has been created by astronomers using data collected over more than 20 years by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The time-lapse film retraces the history of the star explosion known as Eta Carinae using Chandra observations from 1999, 2003, 2009, 2014, and 2020 and information from the ESA's XMM-Newton probe.

It is thought that the Great Eruption, which originated from Eta Carinae, was caused by the merger of two stars that were once part of a triple-star system. The footage demonstrates how the star outburst has continued to quickly expand into space at rates of up to 4.5 million miles per hour after the collision's aftermath was observed on Earth in the middle of the 19th century, according to a statement from NASA.

Eta Carinae reportedly emitted between 10 and 45 times the mass of the sun during this outburst. On the opposite sides of the two stars, this material developed into a dense pair of spherical gas clouds now known as the Homunculus Nebula.

The bright blue cloud in the middle of the photograph, known as the Homunculus Nebula, is driven by high-energy X-rays emitted by the two massive stars, which are too close together to be seen separately. A ring of X-ray emissions that is bright orange and appears to be expanding quickly is observed around them.

According to NASA, the latest Chandra movie and a detailed, summarized image created by combining all the data provide key clues about Eta Carinae's turbulent past. It includes the ring's quick enlargement and a faint, previously unidentified X-ray shell surrounding it.

This image highlights the faint X-ray shell, demonstrating its similarity to the Homunculus nebula in terms of shape and orientation, which raises the possibility of a shared origin for the two phenomena. Well before the Great Eruption, observed in 1843, astronomers assumed that the star material was blown away from Eta Carinae between the years 1200 and 1800 based on the migration of clumps of gas.

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What Is Eta Carinae?

Eta Carinae is a strange red star and nebula located in the southern constellation Carina, 7,500 light-years from Earth. It is now understood that the star system is a binary one. It belongs to the tiny group of stars known as brilliant blue variables.

The English astronomer Sir Edmond Halley identified it as a star of approximately fourth magnitude in 1677. However, Sir John Herschel, who saw it in 1838, said it was a star of first magnitude.

It was roughly one magnitude, or as brilliant as the brightest stars, by 1843, when it attained its highest known brightness. It remained brilliant for several years, contrasting the usual kinds of exploding stars termed novae and supernovae. It started to wane around 1857 and only completely vanished to the untrained sight around 1870.

Since then, it has fluctuated erratically with the seventh magnitude. The star's nebula, an expanding shell of gas and dust with a disk at its center and an hourglass shape, was created during the star's 19th-century outburst.