Eta Carinae would be a mystery no more

Researchers have used the mix of visible-light and spectroscopic observations to find that Eta Carinae was not very hot in the beginning and that is why it didn't lit through supernova.

Eta Carinae is a supermassive star, i.e. 100 times more massive than Sun, and situated about 7500 light years away.

This research has been published online in the February issue of the journal Nature.

"When the eruption was seen on Earth 170 years ago, there were no cameras capable of recording the event," explained Armin Rest, leading researcher and corresponding author in the research. "Everything astronomers have known to date about Eta Carinae's outburst is from eyewitness accounts. Modern observations with science instruments were made years after the eruption actually happened. It's as if nature has left behind a surveillance tape of the event, which we are now just beginning to watch. We can trace it year by year to see how the outburst changed."

Source:
SayPeople

Via:
Hubble Site