Visible echoes reprise 19th century spectacle

Light from long-ago stellar eruption holds clues to its cause

Scientists are closer to understanding an enormous two-decade-long eruption that transformed one of the galaxy’s most massive stars into a fireball millions of times brighter than the sun.

LEFTOVER LIGHT After analyzing light echoes left over from an eruption of the binary star Eta Carinae more than 150 years ago, scientists suggest the spectacle was created by an explosion rather than an energetic stellar wind.