An unprecedented look at the monster Eta Carinae (+ Video) – The Periodiquito

Your stars erupted twice in the nineteenth and may end up as supernovae: NASA has new data from the system after a study of eleven .

Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive 10,000 light years from Earth star system, is known for its surprising behavior; broke twice in the nineteenth century for reasons that scientists still do not understand and the two stars that compose both are approaching any of them could end his life as a supernova. A long-term study led by astronomers at NASA Goddard Center in Greenbelt, Maryland (USA) has used satellites, ground-based telescopes and theoretical modeling to produce the most complete picture of Eta Carinae to date. The new findings, presented at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society held in Seattle, including images from the Hubble Space Telescope showing the structure of a decade old ionized gas exiting the biggest star at a million miles per hour . In addition, new models in 3-D show features never before seen in the interactions between the two stars.

“We are coming to understand the current state and the complex environment of this remarkable object, but we have a long way go to explain past eruptions of Eta Carinae or to predict their future behavior, “says Ted Gull, an astrophysicist at Goddard, who heads a research group that has overseen the star for over a decade.

Located about 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina, Eta Carinae is composed of two massive stars whose eccentric orbits take them unusually close every 5.5 years. Both produce soft outputs powerful stellar winds calls that surround the stars. Astronomers have determined that the most brilliant, cool star has about 90 times the mass of the Sun and shines 5 million times. The properties of its hot little companion are still debated, but Gull believed to have about 30 solar masses and emits a million times sunlight.

At closest approach, or periastro, the stars are located at 225 million miles away, near the average distance between Mars and the sun. During the months before and after perihelion, dramatic changes occur in the system. These include X-ray flares, followed by a sudden decline and eventual recovery of the issue; the disappearance and reappearance of structures near the stars detected in specific wavelengths of visible light; and even a play of light and shadows when the small star oscillates around the primary.

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 Print in 3-D

Over the past 11 years, spanning three periastros, the Goddard group has developed a method based on observations of the star model using ground-based telescopes and several NASA satellites . According to this model, the interaction of the two stellar winds causes many of the newspapers observed changes in the system. Winds of each star has markedly different properties: thick and slow for primary, light and fast for the hottest. The primary wind blows about 1 million miles per hour and is particularly dense, taking the equivalent mass of our sun every thousand years. By contrast, the second wind drag outwards about 100 times less material, but six times faster.

The simulations performed by researchers at the Pleiades supercomputer at the Center NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, was taken to a 3-D printer, the world’s first astrophysicist a complex system, which has detected features that had not been seen before and that scientists did not even know existed probably the result of physical instabilities that arise when the fast wind collides with the slower wind.

The two massive star Eta Carinae could end their lives in supernova explosions. Although both continue losing mass at high rates, there is no evidence to suggest that there will be an imminent demise of either.

In July 2014, when the stars rushed towards each other, Swift satellite observed a series of flares that culminated in the brightest X-ray emission from Eta Carinae view ever. This implies a change in the mass loss by one of the stars, but the X-rays alone can not determine. This event will help scientists make new predictions of the behavior of Eta Carinae, which will be tested when both stars return to close in February 2020.

Via ABC of Spain