A guide to what's up in the sky for Southern Australia

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Eta Carinae Nebula (NGC 3372) (1st Mar 2025)

Distance: 7500 Light Years

The southern Milky Way holds one of the most enigmatic and
exotic stars known. Eta Carinae is the centrepiece and ionizing star
of the great HII region, the Eta Carinae Nebula. The nebula itself
spans some 260 light years across, about 7 times the size of the
Orion Nebula. Massive is an understatement, as the great star
weighs in at some 100 to 150 solar masses and shines with the light
output of 5 million suns. The young supergiant star (only 2 to 3
million years old) pumps out as much energy in 6 seconds as our
sun does in an entire year! It does have a companion star only
slightly less massive.
Because of its extraordinary mass the star is certainly expected to
end as a great supernova in the near future. An energy outburst of
this order could possibly devastate starfields and planets within a
few thousand light years radius.