Cosmic Fireworks in Ultraviolet

Esahubble_heic1912a_1024

esahubble_heic1912a July 1st, 2019

Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona, Tucson), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute, New York)

Telescopes, including Hubble, have monitored the Eta Carinae star system for more than two decades. It has been prone to violent outbursts, including an episode in the 1840s during which ejected material formed the bipolar bubbles seen here. Now, using Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 to probe the nebula in ultraviolet light, astronomers have uncovered the glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas (shown in blue) in places they had not seen it before. The luminous magnesium resides in the space between the dusty bipolar bubbles and the outer shock-heated nitrogen-rich filaments (shown in red). The streaks visible in the blue region outside the lower-left lobe are a striking feature of the image. These streaks are created when the stars light rays poke through the dust clumps scattered along the bubbles surface. Wherever the ultraviolet light strikes the dense dust, it leaves a long, thin shadow that extends beyond the lobe into the surrounding gas. Eta Carinae resides 7500 light-years away.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/heic1912a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Eta Carinae
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula
Esahubble_heic1912a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 10h 45m 3.7s
DEC = -59° 41’ 2.1”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
0.7 x 0.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Carina

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (Mg II) 280.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (u) 336.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (NII) 658.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_heic1912a_1280
×
ID
heic1912a
Subject Category
B.4  
Subject Name
Eta Carinae
Credits
NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona, Tucson), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute, New York)
Release Date
2019-07-01T16:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/heic1912a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Ultraviolet, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Mg II, u, NII
Central Wavelength
280, 336, 658
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
161.265244106, -59.6839099636
Reference Dimension
1779.0, 1805.0
Reference Pixel
889.5, 902.5
Scale
-6.31295895593e-06, 6.31295895593e-06
Rotation
-0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic1912a
Metadata Date
2019-02-06T12:53:13-05:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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