A Hubble Space Telescope observation of the star Eta Carinae, made with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC). An eruptive variable star, Eta Carinae has expelled a large amount of gas into the surrounding interstellar medium. The HST resolves individual clumps as small as only about ten times the size of our Solar System. Because it is clumpy on such small scales, and has such a well defined edge, the nebula is probably a thin and well defined shell of material, rather than a filled volume. Radiation pressure and stellar wind from Eta Carinae have fragmented the shell. Ejecta from the star slams into slower moving gas to create a ridge of emission to the lower right. This ridge is in fact part of a "cap" of material located to the southwest and behind the star. Small knots and filaments trace the locations of other shock fronts within the nebula. A very well collimated jet of material flowing away from Eta Carinae can be seen as two parallel lines pointing to the northeast (upper left) away from the star. These two lines mark the edges of the jet, which appears to be a narrow tube-like structure. The jet terminates in an inverted U-shaped feature, which is the bow shock. A fascinating "ladder-like" structure also appears to be associated with the jet. The "rungs" of the ladder may represent some kind of wave phenomenon in the flow of material away from the star. Seven individual exposures were obtained through a filter which isolates light emitted by ionized nitrogen. The exposures were then combined and processed to partially correct for the aberration caused by the telescope's primary mirror. The field shown is 50 arcseconds across, resolution is 0.2 arcseconds. Not all of the structure in the image is real. The cross centered below and to the left of the star is where the four portions of the image (from four different cameras) were imperfectly patched together. Some of the structure along the left side and bottom of the image is due to imperfections in the image reconstruction techniques. The line and the "Christmas tree" structure extending from the star to the top of the frame and the "salt and pepper" structure in the center of the image are due to overexposure in the center of the nebula.
Credits
Credit:: J. Hester/Caltech & NASA| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Eta Carinae |
| R.A. Position | 10h 45m 3.59s |
| Dec. Position | -59° 41' 4.26" |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
