July 1996, colour pencil, pastel and poster colour, 500 x 700 mm
The star Eta Carinae (right) is one of the most enigmatic stars in the Galaxy. It's in the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), a bright gas cloud 9000 light years from the Earth. During an outburst in 1843, when it was for a short time the second-brightest star in the sky, it ejected two lobes of gas, wich extended in the mean time to a total length of one light year. They obscure the starlight and give Eta Carinae the same colour as the Sun. But the star itself is blue, five million times brighter and estimated 150 times heavier than our small Sun. The parent star of the smooth planetmoon on the foreground, once formed in the Carina Nebula, stands far below the horizon. The distance between the planetsystem and Eta Carinae is 10 light years.
Copyright © Chris Dorreman