File:Eta Carinae- New View of Doomed Star (A star between 100 and 150 more massive than the Sun, about 7,500 light years from Earth.) (2940640217).jpg

Description: 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. suburbs. Because it is only approximately 25,000 light years from Earth, the center of our galaxy provides an excellent laboratory for learning about the cores of other galaxies.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: c. 2002

Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/etacar/

Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Collection: Normal Stars and Star Clusters Collection

Gift line: X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/M.Corcoran et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI