News Space

Blast from the past poses puzzle

The 1840s outburst of the star Eta Carinae eludes classification.

By Ron Cowen

- More than 2 years ago

New observations suggest that the brilliant outburst of a hefty star that first wowed observers in the 1840s could be signs of a new, exotic type of stellar explosion.

BLAST WAVE This animation shows the expanding blast wave from Eta Carinae’s 1843 eruption. The first image shows the star as it may have appeared before the eruption, surrounded by an older shell of gas that was ejected in an outburst about 1,000 years earlier.