Eta Carinae
Position on the route: 127/130 · level needed 3200 · journey (Mk0 engine) 471.2 h
By the numbers
| Distance | ≈ 7,500 light-years |
|---|---|
| Mass | ≈ 100 Suns |
| Great Eruption | 1838–1858 |
| Brightness | millions of Suns |
The story
Eta Carinae is a supergiant double-star system in the southern constellation Carina, with about 100 solar masses and millions of times the Sun’s luminosity. In the ‘Great Eruption’ of 1838–1858 it briefly became the second brightest star in the sky after Sirius and threw off the two-lobed ‘Homunculus’ nebula.
Its stellar wind blows at hundreds of km per second and the star will go supernova or hypernova soon in cosmic terms. At 7,500 light-years it is no threat to Earth; but it is one of the best laboratories for understanding stars of this mass.
Missions
- Hubble: details of the Homunculus
- Chandra and XMM-Newton: X-ray observations
Colony note
Lethal radiation; only a very distant, heavily shielded station.
☠ A supergiant close to exploding: lethal radiation and stellar wind. Only a very distant, heavily shielded station.
What probes bring back
- ≈ 7,500 light-years: a star of about 100 solar masses; in the 1840s a ‘Great Eruption’ made it the second brightest star in the sky and threw off the ‘Homunculus’ nebula.
- It will soon (in cosmic terms) go supernova or hypernova; its stellar wind blows at hundreds of km per second.