The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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This is an artist’s rendition of a colliding-wind binary system.
ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral, has made the first unambiguous discovery of high-energy X-rays coming from a colliding-wind binary system at our cosmic doorstep, Eta Carinae. It is one of the most violent places in the galaxy, producing vast winds of electrically-charged particles colliding at speeds of thousands of kilometres per second.
The high-energy X-rays come from a vast shockwave, set up and maintained between the two massive stars. The shockwave is produced when the two stars’ stellar winds collide, creating the system that is termed a colliding-wind binary.