AG Carinae
It is not hard to see why so many are obsessed with AG Carinae. We referenced already how the Carina territory is home to a massive star nursery. However, AG Carinae stands out here in a big way. Seriously, you cannot miss it. Technically, it is classified as a “luminous blue variable” or LBV. These are massive stars that are heavily evolved and often show unpredictable, dramatic variations in their spectra and even their brightness. LBVs are very rare, with only 20 currently known to science as of this writing.
Of course, AG Carinae happens to be one of the brightest stars in the entire Milky Way Galaxy. However, it happens to be 20,000 lightyears away from Earth. Combined with interstellar dust, the star is usually not capable of being seen with the naked eye in spite of how bright it is. On top of this, we did reference how LBVs can be unpredictable, remember? AG Carinae certainly lives up to that as its brightness varies massively between a magnitude of 5.7 and 9.0. Of course, on a bright day, the decision was made to get a great image. This led to one of the most breathtaking photos captured by NASA and the ESA.