Star Eta Carinae

The star Eta Carinae was seen to erupt in the 19th century. During the eruption, the star lost 10 to 20 solar masses of material, which now forms a nebula around it. Astronomers observed a similar outburst from HD 5980 in 1993-94. This Hubble Space Telescope’s image thus shows how HD 5980 might look like in a century.