Eta CarinaeHomunculus Nebula expansion 1996-2006
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This animation of the Homunculus Nebula around Eta Carinae shows a significant expansion during the 10 years since the famous HST image of 1996, and my observation in 2006.
The animation shows the HTS image of 1996 folloved by my image of 2006, aligned and scaled to fit by two stars in the upper left, and Eta Carinae itself in the center of the nebula. The 2006 image is a composite of a 1/25th second exposure of the outer lobes and 1/50th second of the core. This composite was then blended with a 1/25th second exposure taken with an OIII filter to reveal more details in the nebula. The Homunculus (Latin for Little Man) is an hourglass shaped could of gas and dust which is rapidly expanding from Eta Carinae, the massive star in the center of the nebula. The nebula originated from an enormous outburst which Eta underwent in 1841 during which it became the second brightest star in the night sky. Expanding at around 700 km/s the nebula is now seen as an orange-red shell, and it has now obscured the light from Eta itself, making it invisible to the naked eye. Eta is the most massive star known at around 100-150 solar masses, and it is one of the candidates for the next supernova explosion in our galaxy. It is wildly unstable and has an enormous luminosity of 4 million times that of our Sun. The star and nebula is located in the southern constellation Carina at a distance of 7500 ly. | |||||||||||||||
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