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New View of Doomed Star

Chandra_359_1024

chandra_359 June 20th, 2007

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/M.Corcoran

This composite image of Eta Carinae from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope shows the remnants of a massive eruption from the star during the 1840s. The X-ray data (yellow) show where material from that explosion has collided with nearby gas and dust. The optical data (blue) reveals material ejected from the star has formed a bipolar structure. Chandra detects a faint X-ray reflection off the inner optical nebula due to the collision of stellar winds between Eta Carinae and a suspected companion star.

Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory

Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/etacar/

Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA

Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

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Image Details

Image Type: Observation
Object Name: Eta Carinae
Subject - Milky Way: Star > Evolutionary Stage > Blue Supergiant

Distance

Universescale1

7,500 light years

Chandra_359_128

Position Details

Position (ICRS): RA = 10h 45m 3.6s; DEC = -59° 41’ 6.0”
Orientation: North is up
Field of View: 2.2 x 1.7 arcminutes
Constellation: Carina

Color Mapping

	Telescope	Spectral Band	Wavelength
	Chandra (ACIS)	X-ray (X-ray)	1.378 nm
	Chandra (ACIS)	X-ray (X-ray)	299.0 pm
	Hubble (WFPC2)	Optical	-

Spectrum_xray1w

Yellow

Blue

Chandra_359_1280

×

ID: 359
Subject Category: B.3.1.6
Subject Name: Eta Carinae
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/M.Corcoran

Release Date: 2007-06-20
Lightyears: 7,500
Redshift: 7,500
Reference Url: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/etacar/

Type: Observation
Image Quality: Good
Distance Notes

Facility: Chandra, Chandra, Hubble
Instrument: ACIS, ACIS, WFPC2
Color Assignment: Yellow, Blue, Blue

Band: X-ray, X-ray, Optical
Bandpass: X-ray, X-ray, -
Central Wavelength: 1.378, 0.299, -

Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes

Coordinate Frame: ICRS
Equinox: J2000
Reference Value: 1.6126500000000E+02, -5.9685000000000E+01
Reference Dimension: 3000, 2341

Reference Pixel: 1567.664, 1148.272
Scale: -1.22088889355E-05, 1.20261997376E-05
Rotation: 0.000000
Coordinate System Projection:: TAN

Quality: Full
FITS Header
Notes

Creator (Curator): Chandra X-ray Observatory
URL: http://chandra.harvard.edu
Name: Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Email: cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu

Telephone: 617.496.7941
Address: 60 Garden St.
City: Cambridge
State/Province: MA

Postal Code: 02138
Country: USA
Rights: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html

Publisher: Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
Publisher ID: chandra
Resource ID: etacar.tif

Resource URL: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/etacar/etacar.tif
Related Resources

Metadata Date: 2012-04-17
Metadata Version: 1.2

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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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Universescalefull

7,500 light years

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NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASA’s Science Activation program, which strives to further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages.