Fresh Clues in Eta Carinae's 2009.0 Event

Details Fresh Clues in Eta Carinae's 2009.0 Event Fresh Clues in Eta Carinae's 2009.0 Event

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21442811d&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #428.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.699

Other

Scientific paper

Eta Carinae's most recent spectroscopic event climaxed in January 2009 and revealed significant new information. We obtained UV images with the HST/WFPC2, and violet-to-red spectroscopy with GMOS on the Gemini South telescope. The new NICI instrument on Gemini South obtained a remarkable set of near-IR images shortly after the peak of the event.
Improved temporal coverage proves to be critical. With both HST/WFPC2 and Gemini/GMOS, the time intervals between observations were substantially smaller than we had achieved with HST/STIS and HST/ACS during the preceding event in mid-2003. Thus we find, for example, that the UV brightness of the central wind changed much faster than previous data could show or even hint. Meanwhile the behavior of the strange He II 4686 emission is greatly clarified, and a number of other features differed from the 2003 event.
Regarding pre-event developments, Gemini/GMOS spectroscopy in 2007--2008 can be used to derive fresh constraints on the orbit of eta Car's hypothetical hot companion star.
The high-spatial-resolution near-IR images obtained with Gemini/NICI show a dramatic new view of eta Car's Homunculus ejecta-nebula. Because of lesser extinction, these show deeper structure than the familiar HST images; some of the most conspicuous large near-IR structures have no UV-to-red counterparts.
This program is partially funded by grants from STScI.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Fresh Clues in Eta Carinae's 2009.0 Event does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Fresh Clues in Eta Carinae's 2009.0 Event, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Fresh Clues in Eta Carinae's 2009.0 Event will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1107472