Astronomers look deep into stellar giant

GARCHING, Germany, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- The European Southern Observatory's telescope array in Chile has looked deep into the solar wind of a giant star to better understand its death throes.

Ever since 1841, when the until then inconspicuous southern star Eta Carinae underwent a spectacular outburst, astronomers have wondered what exactly is going on in this unstable giant. Due to its considerable distance, however, of 7,500 light-years, details of the star itself were beyond observation.

This star is known to be surrounded by the Homunculus Nebula, two mushroom-shaped clouds ejected by the star, each of which is hundreds of times larger than our solar system.

The ESO announced Wednesday that for the first time, infrared interferometry with the VINCI instrument on the observatory's Very Large Telescope Interferometer enabled an international team of astronomers to zoom-in on the inner part of the stellar wind.

For Roy van Boekel, leader of the team, these results indicate "the wind of Eta Carinae turns out to be extremely elongated and the star itself is highly unstable because of its fast rotation."