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See the original image at apod.nasa.gov

APOD: Eta Carinae and the Homunculus Nebula

apod.nasa.gov — How did the star Eta Carinae create this unusual nebula? No one knows for sure. About 165 years ago, the southern star Eta Carinae mysteriously became the second brightest star in the night sky. In 20 years, after ejecting more mass than our Sun, Eta Car unexpected faded. This outburst appears to have created the Homunculus Nebula, pictured above i

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 18, 2008

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  • Aeroslin, on 06/17/2008, -0/+19One of the best scenes in our Galaxy.
  • jamessavik, on 06/17/2008, -0/+15Eta Carina is one of the most studied stars in the sky. Stars in this state are called luminious blue variables (or LBV for short). They are massive stars that appear to be at the end of its life cycle. It appears to be in what some astronomers are calling "the Wolf-Rayet stage" and it may be getting ready to go supernova.
    Stars as big and hot as Eta Carina are the most luminious objects in the universe. The radiation and stellar wind from Eta Carina illuminate and effect the entire nebulea. While Eta may not seem that bright, most of its radiation is in the UV.
  • timyjl, on 06/17/2008, -2/+13Ka—BLOOOOWEEEEEEEE
  • InvisibleInk, on 06/17/2008, -0/+11Eta Carinae will go hypernova. Fortunately it is out of range to cause mass extinctions on Earth.

    http://www.armageddononline.org/hypernova.php
  • RickyBarnes1960, on 06/18/2008, -0/+11Absolutely beautiful. I have to wonder what civilizations might have gone up in flames with that "little" explosion. Every time I see these photos of distant objects, I can't help wonder what possible long-running intelligent dramas played out before their cataclysms. We have no proof of stories playing out elsewhere, but I think we can't help but wonder about them.
  • marially, on 06/17/2008, -2/+8Spectacular!!!
  • sfacets, on 06/18/2008, -2/+8Humunculus? No! We must protect the philosopher's stone!
  • kejibear, on 06/17/2008, -6/+10Celestial testicles!
  • whoaohh, on 06/18/2008, -0/+4It's crazy how nature at such a massive scale looks so similar to nature at a microscopic scale.
  • Thrilltone, on 06/18/2008, -0/+3Looks like mitosis, on a grand scale
  • defektiv, on 06/18/2008, -0/+3I love this site. It's simple in that it's a picture a day with text, but you can spend hours daily exploring the links in the text and enjoying the pictures. Absolute kudos to whoever keeps this thing updated.
  • matt510, on 06/18/2008, -0/+2People complaining about it daily annoy me much more. It isn't difficult to ignore ONE post a day from APOD. There are way more crappy posts out there that get posted much more frequently. At least APOD has quality information and images.

    Stop whining. If you don't like it, scroll past it, it takes a fraction of a second.
  • bouche, on 06/19/2008, -0/+2I've got news for you. There is an RSS feed for the APOD photos that you can subscribe to and spare us on digg from seeing APOD every single frikkin' day.

    Who's going to help me bury these? I can't be the only one that sees how ridiculous the APOD post daily to digg is.
  • TheDreadDiggerD, on 06/18/2008, -0/+2As above, so below.
  • inactive, on 06/18/2008, -0/+2Eta Carinae and the Homunculus Nebula, in theatres this summer. (Sequel to Eta Carinae and the Last Crusade and Eta Carinae and the Temple of Doom. Does NOT star Shia Leboeuf, fortunately. But it DOES have a lot of stars. No, literally.)
  • mcool119, on 06/18/2008, -1/+3Troglodyte Homunculus.
  • Jamihabs, on 06/18/2008, -0/+2I have looked at this star through 20” telescope in Australia. Although I didn’t see the kind of detail this image shows, I could see a tremendous amount of detail, and enough to knock my socks off (much like the first time I looked a Saturn).
  • whoaohh, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1Digg didn't use to be like this...
  • edwartica, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1Its further proof that God created all things, big and small.
  • bpeacock22, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1The cool thing about this is it happened, what, thousands of years ago (or however many light years away it is)? We're seeing stuff that happened in the past...kind of hard to wrap your mind around sometimes. :)
  • edwartica, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1No, I see a Homunulus. ;)
  • AmICoolNow, on 06/18/2008, -1/+2Anyone else see a fetus?
  • edwartica, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1The explosion happened when the photo was taken. This whole theory of the speed of light is nothing more than a Ruse brought to you by the evilutionists and Hallmark (they sell cards about this or something).
  • MacroDaemon, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1I'm fairly certain that quasars are far more luminous than single stars such as Eta Carinae.
  • edwartica, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1Well we know what you like to focus on, now don't we?
  • jamessavik, on 06/18/2008, -0/+1you are right about Quasars and of course galaxies. I should have said- the most luminous stellar objects in the universe.
  • BeefBaron, on 06/18/2008, -1/+1Ka-Boom!
    /demoman
  • beautifulleper, on 06/18/2008, -0/+0what the hell dude, wrong story!
  • speneko, on 06/18/2008, -1/+1That is so strangely awesome...
  • natebreen, on 06/19/2008, -0/+0Dugg for Diablo II flashbacks.
  • edwartica, on 06/18/2008, -1/+1That's what she said.
  • ferrell, on 06/18/2008, -1/+1Hmmm...

    http://fracas.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/popcorn. ...
  • cutright, on 06/19/2008, -0/+0... Not getting ready to go supernova, but hypernova. The most interesting thing about Eta Carinae is that it taught us stars can exceed the Eddington Limit (the point at which the outward force of light exceeds the inward force of gravity). This is what caused the giant explosion the article mentioned.


  • dustin32, on 06/18/2008, -1/+1So the explosion happened 165 years ago. Anybody know how old this pic is that we are looking at? It's kind of weird to think that pictures from way out there are showing us things that happened a while ago...
  • inactive, on 06/18/2008, -3/+2And many of the diggers looked up and and yelled, wow, that is sooo random, came from randomness and I'm a loser...
  • inactive, on 06/18/2008, -2/+1It's the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
  • Scopitone, on 06/18/2008, -2/+1The spice...
  • JrGhoull, on 06/18/2008, -2/+1"after ejecting more mass than our Sun"

    (snickers) dugg.
  • aptanalogy, on 06/18/2008, -2/+1Dugg for homunculus nebula.
  • zaren, on 06/18/2008, -3/+2Okay, not that the APOD isn't cool and all, but does every one for every day have to get posted and hit the main page? You have bookmarks for a reason. I've had an APOD link in my web browsers for years, it's not hard to do.
  • SpinCaster, on 06/17/2008, -4/+2Did you hear that?
  • gimmeslack12, on 06/17/2008, -10/+8Looks like BALLS. Extremely massive BALLS. Galacticly massive, overly gigantic, unfathomably huge, particle infused pair of mega-BALLS!
  • Krodor, on 06/17/2008, -5/+1holy moley frik that's cool.
  • inactive, on 06/18/2008, -7/+2God's Scrotum
  • gimmeslack12, on 06/17/2008, -9/+4Thanks Professor. Now why don't you go bang Mary Anne and leave us to our immature comments regarding the galactic testicles.
  • AlexWiggy, on 06/17/2008, -9/+4Testicles.
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