Homunculus Nebula

Homunculus Nebula — nebula, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

Two billowing lobes of dust blasted out of Eta Carinae during an eruption so violent it briefly became the second-brightest star in the sky — a star that survived its own near-death explosion.

Type
Bipolar ejecta nebula
Distance
7,500 light-years
Born
The Great Eruption, seen in the 1840s
Central star
Eta Carinae — a doomed ~100-solar-mass binary
Expanding at
~650 km/s
Shown here
Real NASA 3D reconstruction

Seeing Homunculus Nebula in real time

Homunculus Nebula is placed at its true position on the sky and at its real measured distance, not as a flat backdrop. Fly out from the Sun in the live 3D view and watch it change from a point of light into structure as you approach, with the scale bar showing just how far out you have travelled.

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