Is Eta Carinae visible in the northern hemisphere?
Its location at around 60°S in the far southern celestial hemisphere means it cannot be seen by observers in Europe and much of North America. Located between Canopus and the Southern Cross, Eta Carinae is easily pinpointed as the brightest star within the large naked eye Carina Nebula.
How many stars make up Eta Carinae?
The Eta Carinae system has at least two stars. The primary star is classified as a luminous blue variable (LBV). The secondary component is a hot supergiant orbiting the primary star.
What will Eta Carinae become?
Eta Carinae is expected to become a supernova in the future, but the great eruption event was merely a bright outburst.
Where is Eta Carinae in the sky?
southern constellation Carina
Eta Carinae, also called Homunculus Nebula, peculiar red star and nebula about 7,500 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Carina and now known to be a binary star system. It is one of a small class of stars called luminous blue variables.
Can you see Sirius in the Northern Hemisphere?
Sirius is highly visible in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter night sky, because the star has a high luminosity, or intrinsic brightness, relative to other stars, and because it’s relatively close to Earth (8.6 light-years away). According to NASA, Sirius has a mass that’s two times that of Earth’s sun.
Will Eta Carinae become a black hole?
Each star in the Eta Carinae system is massive enough to form a neutron star in a supernova explosion. Because we’ve observed black holes in binary systems with a massive star companion, it is a good bet that the most massive stars like Eta Carinae do collapse to black holes.
Is Eta Carinae the biggest star?
Estimated to be 100 times more massive than our Sun, Eta Carinae may be one of the most massive stars in our Galaxy. It radiates about five million times more power than our Sun.
Will there be a supernova in 2022?
This is exciting space news and worth sharing with more sky watch enthusiasts. In 2022—only a few years from now—an odd type of exploding star called a red nova will appear in our skies in 2022. This will be the first naked eye nova in decades.
Is Sirius the North Star?
No, the brightest star in the night sky is not the North Star. It’s Sirius, a bright, blue star that this weekend becomes briefly visible in the predawn sky for those of us in the northern hemisphere.
What’s the difference between Sirius A and Sirius B?
The two stars revolve around each other every 50 years. Sirius A, only 8.6 light-years from Earth, is the fifth closest star system known. Sirius B, a white dwarf, is very faint because of its tiny size, only 12,000 kilometres in diameter. White dwarfs are the leftover remnants of stars similar to our Sun.
What will happen when Eta Carinae explode?
Today, astronomers calculated that the Great Eruption caused Eta Carinae to expel some 10% of its own mass. The eruption created a double-lobed nebula, or cloud in space – known as the Homunculus Nebula – around the star.
How many light years away is Earth from Eta Carinae?
7,502 light yearsEta Carinae / Distance to Earth