Exploring And Modeling High-excitation Emission In The Ejecta And Wind Of Eta Carinae

Details Exploring And Modeling High-excitation Emission In The Ejecta And Wind Of Eta Carinae Exploring And Modeling High-excitation Emission In The Ejecta And Wind Of Eta Carinae

Jan 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21723204m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #232.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011

Physics

Scientific paper

Eta Car is the most massive, most luminous star in our region of the Galaxy. In the 1840's its unstable nature culminated in the "Great Eruption” when it briefly became the second brightest star in the sky and ejected several solar masses, which we today see as a bipolar nebula enshrouding the surviving star. Eta Car's ejecta show some of the most complex and demanding spectra of any astronomical object. Combining the vast amount of data from the HST/STIS, Gemini/GMOS, and VLT/UVES instruments during 1998 to 2010, I analyzed and compared several "spectroscopic cycles” in the entire optical spectrum. A variety of different slit position angles make it possible to map the emission across the nebula. The complex outer ejecta of eta Car make it also possible to observe the star at different stellar latitudes via reflected light. Results include:
1) An analysis of the high-excitation emission lines that are indicators of eta Car's spectroscopic events; every 5.54 years, they abruptly disappear for a few weeks. They also provide clues to the far-UV output of the presumed secondary star. I use ionizing fluxes of model atmospheres and the photoionization code Cloudy to define a parameter space for the secondary star.
2) Analysis and modeling of He I, He II, and N II lines to better understand the origin and physics of the events.
3) Recent dramatic changes in the wind of eta Car suggest a rapid decrease in the wind density.

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