The double-lobed unstable star Eta Carina looks like two clouds of gas and dust in shades of pin, orange and brown mushrooming outwards from a bright center.

Eta Carinae

Eta Carinae's great eruption in the 1840s created the billowing Homunculus Nebula, imaged here by Hubble. Now about a light-year long, the expanding cloud contains enough material to make at least 10 copies of our sun. Astronomers cannot yet explain what caused this eruption.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
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Image CreditNASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
Size320x315px