New Spectrum of Massive Erupting Star Eta Carinae | SOAR Telescope
A star's spectrum provides crucial information about its mass, temperature, luminosity, radius, and chemical composition. It is primarily composed of thermal radiation, producing a continuous spectrum that emits light across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma rays to radio waves. The spectrum can also reveal details, such as rotational velocity, surface expansion or contraction, and the presence of stellar winds. The absorption spectrum of stars consists of various wavelengths, each with distinct intensities. They can help us to understand their physical properties.
This image shows the giant star-forming region in the southern sky known as the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), and the full spectrum of the binary star system at its center—Eta Carinae.
This spectrum was captured with the newly installed SOAR Telescope Echelle Spectrograph (STELES) on the SOAR Telescope. It measures light from around 312 nanometers to around 905 nanometers. Light that is ‘bluer’ than 380 nanometers is ultraviolet and is invisible to our eyes. Light that is ‘redder’ than around 750 nanometers is infrared and is also invisible to our eyes. The bright bands indicate the detection of specific wavelengths of light emitted by hydrogen.
Eta Carinae is a fascinating and faint pair of stars located in the constellation Carina, and is a prime example of the type of object that STELES will investigate. SOAR is located on Cerro Pachón in Chile and is operated by U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab.
AG Carinae (AG Car) is a star in the constellation of Carina. It is classified as a luminous blue variable (LBV). The great distance (20,000 light-years) and intervening dust mean that the star is not usually visible to the naked eye; its apparent brightness varies erratically between magnitude 5.7 and 9.0.
https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/soar-telescope/
Release Date: Sept. 26, 2025
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