On Friday, NASA astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope to one of the brightest stars in our galaxy. They intended to celebrate its 31st anniversary. This star is named AG Carinae, and it is about 20,000 light-years away. Now research says that It was not just a bright spot in the sky; it is a glowing gas-and-dust nebula, who is fighting to keep itself from exploding. An erruptive phase gave birth to this star about 10,000 years ago . Furthermore, astronomers are expecting that it will last just a few years, compared to our Sun’s nearly 10-billion-year lifespan.
NASA researchers launched the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990, to discover galaxies beyond our own. This Hubble Space Telescope is still in use and capturing breathtaking celestial images. The AG Carinae is one of the largest and brightest stars in the galaxy. NASA tweeted an image taken in ultraviolet light, which provides a much clearer picture of the star’s dust structures. Hubble is well-suited to observations of ultraviolet light.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s 31st birthday and NASA’s Surprise
The picture got much praise soon after its release, with some users also thanking NASA. NASA describes these stars as having a dual personality and calls them the luminous blue variables. They are inactive for a long time before erupting in an impatient outburst. These stars are constantly struggling to maintain a balance between outbound radiation pressure and gravity pushing. This struggle is due to their size and incredibly high temperatures. Radiation often triumphs, causing the star to explode in a volcanic eruption. These stars regain some composure after the outburst and become quiet for a while.
According to NASA, AG Carinae has also gone through this phase of two forces pushing it in opposing directions. However, its outbursts have been less aggressive than its peers.
The luminous blue variables are important to astronomers because they have far-reaching effects on their surroundings. However, they’re hard to come by; and so far, Humans have only discovered about 50 of them. These stars are in this process for thousands of years. Many of them die in titanic supernova explosions, enriching the universe with heavier elements than iron.
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