Image 6-19
Eta Carinae Nebula

A huge, billowing pair of gas and dust clouds are captured in this stunning NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the supermassive star Eta Carinae. Also known as NGC 3372, Eta Carinae was the site of a giant outburst about 150 years ago, when it became one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Though the star released as much visible light as a supernova explosion, it survived the outburst. The explosion produced two lobes and a large equatorial disk, all moving outward at about 1.5 million miles per hour. NGC 3372 is located 8,000 light-years from Earth.