This animation shows the expanding blast wave from Eta Carinae's 1843 eruption. The first image shows the star as it may have appeared before the eruption, surrounded by an older shell of gas that was ejected in an outburst about 1,000 years earlier. In 1843, Eta Carinae suffered its first documented explosive giant outburst, which created the well-known two-lobed Homunculus nebula and a fast shock wave propagating ahead of it. New evidence for this fast material is reported in the Sept. 11 issue of Nature.

Posted in 'Blast from the past poses puzzle' at sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/36319/title/Blast_from_the_past_poses_puzzle

Credit: Animation based on Gemini Observatory artwork by Lynette Cook