STRANGE FACTS WORLD WIDE; VREEMDE FEITE wêreldwyd.; FAKTE Strange World Wide; ؛ حقائق غريبة من العالم؛; , Տարօրինակ փաստերը աշխարհի.; Dünyanın qəribə faktlar; de hechos extraños en el mundo; 奇怪的事实，在世界; mærkelige faktiske i verden; vreemde feiten van in de wereld; strangaj faktoj de la mondo; kummaline fakte maailma; faits étranges dans le monde de; seltsame Tatsachen in der Welt; furcsa tényeket a világ; 世界での奇妙な事実; 세계의 이상한 사실; aliena facta in mundi; حقایق عجیب در جهان; dziwne fakty na świecie; faptele ciudate ale lumii în; ข้อเท็จจริงที่แปลกของโลก; Dünyada garip gerçekler; دنیا میں کے عجیب حقائق; sự kiện kỳ lạ của thế giới; ;
The larger of the two stars in the Eta Carinae system is a huge and unstable star that is nearing the end of its life, and the event that the 19th century astronomers observed was a stellar near-death experience. Scientists call these outbursts supernova impostor events, because they appear similar to supernovae but stop just short of destroying their star.
Although 19th century astronomers did not have telescopes powerful enough to see the 1843 outburst in detail, its effects can be studied today. The huge clouds of matter thrown out a century and a half ago, known as the Homunculus Nebula, have been a regular target for Hubble since its launch in 1990. This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys High Resolution Channel, is the most detailed yet, and shows how the material from the star was not thrown out in a uniform manner, but forms a huge dumbbell shape.
Eta Carinae is one of the closest stars to Earth that is likely to explode in a supernova in the relatively near future (though in astronomical timescales the "near future" could still be a million years away). When it does, expect an impressive view from Earth, far brighter still than its last outburst: SN 2006gy, the brightest supernova ever observed, came from a star of the same type, though from a galaxy over 200 million light-years away.
Image Credit: ESA/NASA
