As part of our discussion of supernovae,
we consider the strange case of the supermassive and violently unstable
star
Eta Carinae.
This star is about 150 times more massive than the Sun, which places in near the upper limit of
how massive we think a star can be. Because of its large mass it produces energy at a rate of about
4 million times that of the Sun.
The adjacent image
(Ref)
shows a nebula larger than the
Solar System that was ejected in a
violent outburst in 1841. For a time,
this outburst made Eta Carinae the second brightest
star in the sky.
Click here for a more detailed
discussion of a star that seems destined to come to a hideous
end in a few million
years or less.
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