Eta Carinae: A Massive Stellar Blowout

A huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds is captured in this NASA Hubble telescope (HST) image of the super massive star Eta Carinae.

For years, astronomers wondered what was at the heart of the huge Eta Carina nebula, one of the brightest objects in the Southern sky. At the center of the nebula lies the Homunculus, which astronomers attributed to a pulsating, variable star.

Hubble reveals the true Homunculus, a bi-lobed explosion of such a huge scale, our solar system would be a speck on one of the balloons of expanding material.

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