Space: Image of the Day #35

[Robert Bruce]

Image of the Day



Preview of a Forthcoming Supernova

Eta Carinae is one of the closest stars to Earth. NASA's Hubble Telescope captured this image of Eta Carinae.

Yeah! – this baby is going to explode very, very soon and we humans on Earth will have prime seats to view the results. When it does, expect an impressive view from Earth, far brighter still than its last outburst. SN 2006gy, the brightest supernova ever observed, came from a star of the same type, though from a galaxy over 200 million light-years away.

However in space timescales, the word 'soon' means the explosion will perhaps only occur one million years from now. So make a diary note for your future kids to keep a lookout!

The larger of the two stars in the Eta Carinae system is a huge and unstable star that is nearing the end of its life, and the event that the 19th century astronomers observed was a stellar near-death experience. Scientists call these outbursts supernova impostor events, because they appear similar to supernovae but stop just short of destroying their star.

Although 19th century astronomers did not have telescopes powerful enough to see the 1843 outburst in detail, its effects can be studied today. The huge clouds of matter thrown out a century and a half ago, known as the Homunculus Nebula, have been a regular target for Hubble since its launch in 1990.

This image is the most detailed yet, and shows how the material from the star was not thrown out in a uniform manner, but forms a huge dumbbell shape.
 
Courtesy of NASA

[toonfandangl]

The Horse head nebula in Orion itself is a dark dust cloud, visible because it blots out light coming from the stars and glowing nebula behind it. The Orion nebula is known simply as M42 was discovered by French astronomer, Charles Messier the numbers refer to a catalogue of nebulae, galaxies and clusters complied between 1771-1783 he did this so as not to become confused with comets as telescopes were improved other catalogues such as the New General Catalogue (NGC) in 1888 and the Index Catalogue (IC) of 1895 together these catalogues list more than 13000 celestial objects. As well as Messier numbers M42 its also known as NGC1976.

[Michael Alexander]

Makes one feel so small......

[Robert Bruce]

Ag shame! Didn't anyone bother to explain to you how insignificant we all are?