stsci_2016-01f January 6th, 2016
Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Khan (GSFC and ORAU)
Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive stellar system located within 10,000 light-years of Earth, is best known for an enormous eruption seen in the mid-19th century that hurled an amount of material at least 10 times the sun's mass into space. Still shrouded by this expanding veil of gas and dust, Eta Carinae is the only object of its kind known in our galaxy. Now a study using archival data from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes has found five similar objects in other galaxies for the first time.
Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute
Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2016/news-2016-01
Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA
Image Use Policy: http://hubblesite.org/copyright/
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