Properties
Omega Carinae has a stellar classification of B8 IIIe, which places it among a category known as Be stars that display emission lines of hydrogen their spectrum. Omega Carinae is a shell star, having a circumstellar disk of gas surrounding its equator. The luminosity class of III indicates it has evolved into a giant star, having exhausted the hydrogen at its core and left the main sequence. The effective temperature of 13,275 K in its outer envelope is what gives this star the blue-white hue that is characteristic of B-type stars.
This star is rotating rapidly with a projected rotational velocity of 245 km s–1, which gives a lower limit to the star's azimuthal velocity along the equator. The critical equatorial velocity, at which the star would begin to break up, is 320 km s–1. The star's axis of rotation is inclined by an estimated angle of 70.8° to the line of sight from the Earth.
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