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| | | | | | | Integral: Stellar winds colliding at our cosmic doorstep
20 February 2008
| This is an artist’s rendition of a colliding-wind binary system.
ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral, has made the first unambiguous discovery of high-energy X-rays coming from a colliding-wind binary system at our cosmic doorstep, Eta Carinae. It is one of the most violent places in the galaxy, producing vast winds of electrically-charged particles colliding at speeds of thousands of kilometres per second.
The high-energy X-rays come from a vast shockwave, set up and maintained between the two massive stars. The shockwave is produced when the two stars’ stellar winds collide, creating the system that is termed a colliding-wind binary.
Credits: ESA (Animation by C. Carreau) | |  |  | |
| | | | | This is an image of the region around Eta Carinae, as seen by Integral in the high-energy X-ray range. The distance between Eta Carinae and the Integral point source IE 1048.1-5937 is 45 arcminutes.
Credits: ESA/ Integral (Leyder et al.) | | | | |
| | | | | This is an artist’s impression of ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
| | | | | This is an image of the Carina Nebula as seen by the Hubble space telescope. The location of Eta Carinae is indicated.
Credits: NASA, ESA, UCB (N. Smith), STScI/AURA (The Hubble Heritage Team) | | | | |
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| | ESA's gamma-ray astronomy mission ESApod  Integral anniversaryRelated articles First X-ray detection of a colliding-wind binary beyond the Milky WayX-rays betray giant particle accelerator in the skyIntegral discovers the galaxy’s antimatter cloud is lopsidedUnderstanding our neighbourhood in the universeExtension of ESA’s Integral and XMM-Newton missions approvedNew scientific riches from IntegralScience with Integral – five years onGamma-ray lighthouse at the edge of our universeRadioactive iron, a window to the starsIn depth This article in depthIntegral in-depthRelated ESA publications Integral results leaflet (pdf)Integral mission brochure (pdf)
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