In today's image, we see the central portions of the Carina Nebula. This includes the star Eta Carinae which was one of the brightest stars in the sky a couple of hundred years ago. It has since faded. We do know that this is the type of star we expect to become a supernova at the end of its life - but that could happen in a year or in a thousand years, we have no way of knowing until it happens.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

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