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dhani — June 24, 2007 / 3:37 am
This picture taken by Hubble Space Telescope, showing Eta Carinae and the bipolar Homunculus Nebula which surrounds the star. The Homunculus was partly created in an eruption of Eta Carinae whose light reached Earth in 1843. Eta Carinae itself appears as the white patch near the center of the image, where the 2 lobes of the Homunculus touch.
According to Wikipedia, Eta Carinae is currently the most massive star that can be studied in great detail. While it is possible that other known stars might be more luminous and more massive, Eta Carinae has the highest confirmed luminosity based on data across a broad range of wavelengths; former prospective rivals such as the Pistol Star have been demoted by improved data.
Stars with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun produce more than a million times as much light. They are quite rare—only a few dozen in a galaxy as big as the Milky Way. They are assumed to approach the Eddington limit, i.e., the outward pressure of their radiation is almost strong enough to counteract gravity. Stars that are more than 120 solar masses exceed the theoretical Eddington limit, and their gravity is barely strong enough to hold in its radiation and gas, resulting in a possible supernova or hypernova in the near future. (Image credit: Jon Morse/STScI/NASA)
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