via Instagram http://bit.ly/1ksxPUl Does anyone else watch Cosmos? Each and every episode just blows my mind away!!! The latest episode was about stars: birth, life and their death. If you haven't been watching so far you should start watching and see previous episodes ✨🌟💫💥⭐️🌠🌌🎇🎆⛺️🌃🌉 #Repost from @nasa with @repostapp --- As seen on Cosmos: Eta Carinae! At the turn of the 19th century, the binary star system Eta Carinae was faint and undistinguished. In the first decades of the century, it became brighter and brighter, until, by April 1843, it was the second brightest star in the sky, outshone only by Sirius (which is almost a thousand times closer to Earth). In the years that followed, it gradually dimmed again and by the 20th century was totally invisible to the naked eye. The star has continued to vary in brightness ever since, and while it is once again visible to the naked eye on a dark night, it has never again come close to its peak of 1843. Eta Carinae is not only interesting because of its past, but also because of its future. It is one of the closest stars to Earth that is likely to explode in a supernova in the relatively near future (though in astronomical timescales the "near future" could still be a million years away). When it does, expect an impressive view from Earth, far brighter still than its last outburst. SN 2006gy, the brightest supernova ever observed, came from a star of the same type, though from a galaxy over 200 million light-years away. This image consists of ultraviolet and visible light images from the High Resolution Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Credit: ESA/NASA #cosmos #nasa #star #space #astronomy #earth #science
