Eta Carinae: New View of Doomed Star (Forwarded)
- From: Andrew Yee <ayee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:07:15 -0400
Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
(Phone: 617/496-7998)
June 20, 2007
Eta Carinae: New View of Doomed Star
[http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/etacar/]
Eta Carinae is a mysterious, extremely bright and unstable star located a
mere stone's throw -- astronomically speaking -- from Earth at a distance of
only about 7,500 light years. The star is thought to be consuming its
nuclear fuel at an incredible rate, while quickly drawing closer to its
ultimate explosive demise. When Eta Carinae does explode, it will be a
spectacular fireworks display seen from Earth, perhaps rivaling the moon in
brilliance. Its fate has been foreshadowed by the recent discovery of
SN2006gy, a supernova in a nearby galaxy that was the brightest stellar
explosion ever seen. The erratic behavior of the star that later exploded as
SN2006gy suggests that Eta Carinae may explode at any time.
Eta Carinae, a star between 100 and 150 times more massive than the Sun, is
near a point of unstable equilibrium where the star's gravity is almost
balanced by the outward pressure of the intense radiation generated in the
nuclear furnace. This means that slight perturbations of the star might
cause enormous ejections of matter from its surface. In the 1840s, Eta
Carinae had a massive eruption by ejecting more than 10 times the mass of
the sun, to briefly become the second brightest star in the sky. This
explosion would have torn most other stars to pieces but somehow Eta Carinae
survived.
The latest composite image shows the remnants of that titanic event with new
data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The blue regions show the cool optical emission, detected by Hubble, from
the dust and gas thrown off the star. This debris forms a bipolar shell
around the star, which lies near the brightest point of the optical
emission. This bipolar shell is itself surrounded by a ragged cloud of
fainter material. An unusual jet points from the star to the upper left.
Chandra's data, depicted in orange and yellow, shows the X-ray emission
produced as material thrown off Eta Carinae rams into nearby gas and dust,
heating gas to temperatures in excess of a million degrees. This hot shroud
extends far beyond the cooler, optical nebula and represents the outer edge
of the interaction region. The X-ray observations show that the ejected
outer material is enriched by complex atoms, especially nitrogen, cooked
inside the star's nuclear furnace and dredged up onto the stellar surface.
The Chandra observations also show that the inner optical nebula glows
faintly due to X-ray reflection. The X-rays reflected by the optical nebula
come from very close to the star itself; these X-rays are generated by the
high-speed collision of wind flowing from Eta Carinae's surface (moving at
about 1 million miles per hour) with the wind of the companion star (which
is about five times faster).
The companion is not directly visible in these images, but variability in
X-rays in the regions close to the star signals the star's presence.
Astronomers don't know exactly what role the companion has played in the
evolution of Eta Carinae, or what role it will play in its future.
.
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