Hubble images show two sides of a bright blue variable – Astronomy Now

Using the Hubble Space Telescope’s 31st anniversary image, the project team published two views of the bright blue variable AG Carinae, a massive star embedded in an expanding 5 light-year-old shell of gas and dust resulting from multiple eruptions in the past 10,000 years as the star burns its nuclear fuel. In one view, the emissions of ionized hydrogen and nitrogen in the expanding blown gas envelope earlier are shown in red while dust glowing in the reflected light is shown in blue. AG Carinae is continually losing mass, causing it to contract, heat up, and explosively eject materials into the surrounding space. The gas (shown in red) making up the nebula surrounding the star is moving outward at about 43 miles per second. The dust in the shell (in blue) forms clusters, bubbles and filaments, shaped by the stellar wind at high speed. Full frame views highlighting both aspects of AG Carinae are shown below: