Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Wed Feb 20 2019 07:31:10 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2019 February 20 [2] Doomed Star Eta Carinae Image Credit: NASA [3] , ESA [4] , Hubble [5] ; Processing & License [6] : Judy Schmidt [7] Explanation: Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae [8] 's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun [9] - makes it an excellent candidate for a full blown supernova [10] . Historical records do show that about 170 years ago Eta Carinae [11] underwent an unusual outburst that made it one of the brightest stars [12] in the southern sky [13] . Eta Carinae [14] , in the Keyhole Nebula [15] , is the only star [16] currently thought to emit natural LASER light [17] . This featured image [18] brings out details in the unusual nebula [19] that surrounds this rogue star [20] . Diffraction spikes [21] , caused by the telescope, are visible as bright multi-colored streaks emanating from Eta Carinae's center. Two distinct lobes of the Homunculus Nebula [22] encompass the hot central region [23] , while some strange radial streaks are visible in red extending toward the image right. The lobes are filled [24] with lanes of gas and dust [25] which absorb the blue and ultraviolet light [26] emitted near the center. The streaks, however, remain unexplained [27] . Tomorrow's picture: open space ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [28] | Archive [29] | Submissions [30] | Index [31] | Search [32] | Calendar [33] | RSS [34] | Education [35] | About APOD [36] | Discuss [37] | > [38] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [39] (MTU [40] ) & Jerry Bonnell [41] (UMCP [42] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [43] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [44] A service of: ASD [45] at NASA [46] / GSFC [47] & Michigan Tech. U. [48] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1902/EtaCarinae_HubbleSchmidt_1764.jpg [3] https://www.nasa.gov/ [4] http://www.esa.int/ [5] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html [6] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ [7] http://geckzilla.com/ [8] ap991011.html [9] sun.html [10] https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/supernovae2.html [11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae [12] http://www.astro.wisc.edu/%7Edolan/constellations/extra/brightest.html [13] ap000618.html [14] http://messier.seds.org/xtra/ngc/etacar.html [15] ap160814.html [16] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaBxMo4b74g [17] ap971129.html [18] https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/32019832757/ [19] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpnhCEqcRvY [20] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997ARA%26A..35....1D [21] ap010415.html [22] ap140717.html [23] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995ApJ...445L.121C [24] https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7184 [25] ap030706.html [26] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/10_ultravioletwaves [27] http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2016/6/22/2617d6e7-4f6a-4c46-9020-c3aee00f3c79.jpg [28] ap190219.html [29] archivepix.html [30] lib/apsubmit2015.html [31] lib/aptree.html [32] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [33] calendar/allyears.html [34] /apod.rss [35] lib/edlinks.html [36] lib/about_apod.html [37] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=190220 [38] ap190221.html [39] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [40] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [41] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [42] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [43] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [44] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [45] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [46] https://www.nasa.gov/ [47] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [48] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A43 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .