# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/xlEvIbIaLy
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/11737893-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/c3cd1afe51.jpg
- **Posted:** 2015-01-08T04:18:37.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Eta Carinae, the most luminous and massive stellar system within 10,000 light-years of Earth, is known for its surprising behavior, erupting twice in the 19th century for reasons scientists still don't understand. A long-term study led by nasagoddard astronomers used NASA satellites, ground-based telescopes and theoretical modeling to produce the most comprehensive picture of Eta Carinae to date. New findings include Hubble Space Telescope images that show decade-old shells of ionized gas racing away from the largest star at a million miles an hour, and new 3-D models that reveal never-before-seen features of the stars' interactions. 
Eta Carinae's great eruption in the 1840s created the billowing Homunculus Nebula, imaged here by Hubble. Now about a light-year long, the expanding cloud contains enough material to make at least 10 copies of our sun. Astronomers cannot yet explain what caused this eruption.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

#nasa #space #hst #hubble #hubble25 #aas225 #astronomy #astrophysics #science

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## Tags

science, nasa, hubble, aas225, space, hubble25, astrophysics, hst, astronomy

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