Video Reveals NASA's Astonishing 20-Year Journey Through Our Star

2023-10-01 23:27:23

NASA Releases 20-Year Video Of The Most Amazing Star We Know

Twenty-one years of observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory have been put together to create a stunning film of Eta Carinae. The movie showcases the aftermath of a massive explosion that defies description in terms of its scale.

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In the mid-19th century, the star Eta Carinae caused a major disruption in the leaderboard of the brightest stars, surpassing many others and often ranking second only to Sirius. It hadn't been since the supernova observed by Kepler in 1604 that such a phenomenon had been witnessed. Eta Carinae remained bright for a significantly long period, but its current state is concealed by the dust it ejected during the eruption. Nevertheless, astronomers have been able to study it using instruments that operate in the X-ray spectrum, such as Chandra.

The ability to observe Eta Carinae was hindered not only by dust but also by its position in the far south, making it invisible to the largest telescopes of the time. It was only in recent decades, with the construction of advanced instruments in the Andes and the development of space telescopes, that astronomers began to make progress in understanding this star.

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Eta Carinae is composed of two large stars, one with a mass estimated between 30 and 80 times that of the Sun, and the other currently believed to weigh around 90-100 solar masses. This makes it one of the most massive stars in our region of the galaxy, although it was even more massive 200 years ago. During the "Great Eruption" that caused the increased brightness, Eta Carinae expelled a mass between 10 and 45 times that of the Sun.

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Although Chandra does not have the resolution to observe both stars separately, it can detect the distorted X-ray emissions that have provided valuable insights into their behavior.

Observations have revealed that the material ejected during the Great Eruption is expanding at an incredible speed of 7 million kilometers per hour (4.5 million mph). This means it could travel from the Sun to Earth in less than a day, highlighting the magnitude of the event.

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A Glimpse into Eta Carinae's Past

"We've interpreted this faint X-ray shell as the blast wave from the Great Eruption in the 1840s," explained NASA's Dr. Michael Corcoran. "It tells an important part of Eta Carinae's backstory that we wouldn't otherwise have known."

The peculiar shape of the X-ray shell, resembling the Homunculus, led scientists to conclude that both structures are products of the same event. They propose that the Homunculus was created by an eruption that occurred between 800 and 220 years ago, while the low-density gas from this event is moving at an immense speed, allowing it to catch up with the material expelled during the Great Eruption. This collision generates a shockwave that reaches temperatures in the millions and gives off the X-rays observed by Chandra. The visible material within the Homunculus lags behind, moving at about a third of the speed.

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Dr. Kenji Hamaguchi from the University of Maryland remarked, "The shape of this faint X-ray shell is a plot twist in my mind. It shows us that the faint shell, the Homunculus, and the bright inner ring likely all come from eruptions from the star system."

While the ultimate fate of Eta Carinae as a hypernova is certain, the exact timing of this event remains unknown.

The findings of this study are published in The Astrophysical Journal.

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