Eta Carinae. False colour Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image showing the gas and dust clouds around the giant star Eta Carinae. The smallest features seen here are about 15 billion kilometres across the size of the Solar System. The gas and dust around the star came from a gigantic outburst observed about 150 years ago. The dust is seen in the two giant pink lobes of material. Closer to the star (centre), there is little dust so blue wavelengths of light are seen. Eta Carinae is about 100 times more massive than the Sun, and is located some 8000 light years from Earth.