Space
Hubble detects "stellar volcano" that expels jets into space
The Hubble telescope captured spectacular images of a far from peaceful star. We're talking about R Aquarii, a binary star system found about 700 light years from Earth. There, violent eruptions occur that shoot large gaseous filaments into space.
It was in 1990 that Hubble turned its “eyes” to R Aquarii for the first time, revealing that there were two stars separated by billions of kilometers. Now, members of the European Space Agency and NASA, who operate the space telescope together, have produced a timelapse video showing the star's behavior.
R Aquarii is a symbiotic star, a class of binary stars. The binary star there is a red giant 400 times larger than the Sun, which pulsates, changes temperature and brightness over periods of 390 days. When it is at its maximum luminosity, the star shines 5 thousand times brighter than our star.