A 3D View of Eta Carinae

The October 2016 issue of Sky & Telescope features our latest understanding of Eta Carinae's Great Eruption, the massive blast that turned a nondescript (binary) star into the second-brightest in the sky. Thomas Madura, Steffen Wolfgang, and colleagues combined observations of gas motions in the Homunculus Nebula with 3D-rendering software called Shape to generate a model that you can rotate on your screen or even, if you have a 3D printer, touch with your hands.
Observing Eta Carinae in 3D