© NASA / Chandra Project 1999
The larger image on the right is an x-ray Image of Eta Carinae: The blue region is the central star and shows gas with a temperature of 40 million degrees Celsius. The hot gas is probably created when the winds of two hot stars collide. The X-ray flux is variable, and weakens every 5.5 years. The outer nebula material (shown in orange) is much cooler, and is not variable. The smaller image to the left shows the optical nebula superimposed on the x-ray image.