Other
Scientific paper
Feb 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000noao.prop..175s&link_type=abstract
NOAO Proposal ID #2000A-0175
Other
Scientific paper
Within the past year, η Carinae, perhaps the most massive and luminous star in the Galaxy, has doubled its brightness at optical and near-UV wavelengths. η Car is now the brightest it has been since its Great Eruption in the 19th century. This brightening is critical to our understanding of this and other massive stars, since it was already presumed to be within 30% of the Eddington limit before the current outburst began. Furthermore, η Car shows spectroscopic and photometric variability on a 5.5 year cycle discovered in near-IR observations, the cause of which is not understood. Near-IR wavelengths contain a wealth of emission lines of the same species that are seen to vary dramatically in our recent HST/STIS spectra. The near-IR emission lines allow investigation of the central star's radiation field without the problems caused by extinction from the outer dust shell. We are proposing a thorough investigation of the current near-IR emission line structure in η Car in order to choose between various possible explanations for the current eruption and ~5 year spectroscopic cycle. It is especially important to obtain a high resolution near-IR spectrum of η Car in light of its recent outburst; a 1 to 5 µ spectrum of η Car has not been published since 1983, and a high resolution 1 to 5 µ spectrum has never been published.
Davidson Kris
Gehrz Robert D.
Humphreys Roberta M.
Smith Nathan
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