The inner winds of Eta Carinae

The stellar wind regions of Eta Carinae. The artist's impression visualises the inner regions of Eta Carinae probed with AMBER at different wavelengths for the first time. The figure shows the inner elongated stellar wind region observed in continuum light and the more extended region of the Brackett Gamma line emission. The sizes of both zones are 4 and 10 milli-arcseconds (corresponding to 10 and 22 Astronomical Units). The dense stellar wind totally obscures the central star.