The route / Eta Carinae
Sector 12 · Massive star system
Eta Carinae
An unstable giant inside the two-lobed cloud it threw off in the 1840s.
Eta Carinae is a pair of stars, the larger of which is one of the most massive and luminous stars known. It is unstable and prone to huge outbursts.
In the 1840s it erupted and briefly became one of the brightest stars in the night sky. That outburst threw off the Homunculus Nebula, the two-lobed cloud that still surrounds the stars today.
Key facts
- Distance
- About 7,500 light-years
- System
- Two massive stars
- Great Eruption
- 1840s
- Surrounding cloud
- The Homunculus Nebula
Eta Carinae in Comet Courier
Eta Carinae is the last stop before the galactic core: a blazing star wrapped in its two-lobed cloud, with the light turning hot and red.