Captan unprecedented star system Eta Carinae image – La Crónica de Hoy

 NASA achieved an unprecedented picture of Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive star system in the Milky Way. It is 10 thousand light years from Earth, has both business and have a surprising behavior: broke twice in the nineteenth century, short for this type of event and not yet known for how long the explosions occurred

The work of achieving the images was performed by astronomers Goddard Space Flight Center of the US space agency by satellite, terrestrial telescopes and theoretical modeling to have their most complete picture to date. It is known that the two stars that contains the star system are approaching and any of them could end his life as a supernova.

The image and the new findings about the system, were presented at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society held in Seattle, plus 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 are included. 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 its future behavior “

said Ted Gull, an astrophysicist at Goddard, who heads a research group observed the star for more than a decade. COMPOSITION. 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.