A Tour of Eta Carinae

Narrator (April Hobart, CXC): The Eta Carinae star system does not lack for superlatives. First, it contains one of the biggest and brightest stars in our galaxy, weighing at least 90 times the mass of the Sun. It is also extremely volatile and astronomers expect it will have at least one supernova explosion in the future. As one of the first objects observed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory after its launch some 15 years ago, this double star system continues to reveal new clues about its nature through the X-rays it generates. New Chandra data are helping astronomers better understand how the two stars in Eta Carinae interact with one another through powerful winds blowing off their surfaces. As the two stars travel around each other in their elliptical orbits, the amount of X-rays detected changes. This gives astronomers clues to what is happening between these stars now and what may happen to this system in the future.