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Cosmic rays from star system may reach earth
News:
- Eta Carinae, most luminous and massive stellar system within 10,000 light-years is accelerating particles to high energies.
Important facts:
2. Some of these particles may reach the earth as cosmic rays.
3. According to Astronomers, cosmic rays with energies greater than one billion electron volts (eV) came to us from beyond our solar system.
4. Because of these particles-electrons, protons, and atomic nuclei, all carry an electrical charge- they veer off course whenever they encounter magnetic fields.
5. Eta Carinae, located about 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina, is famous for a 19th century outburst that briefly made it the second-brightest star in the sky.
6. This scrambles their paths and masks their origins.
7. The system contains a pair of massive stars whose eccentric orbits bring them unusually close every 5.5 years.
8. The stars contain 90 and 30 times the mass of our Sun and pass 225 million km apart at their closest approach — about the average distance separating Mars and the Sun.
