The Changing Wind Structure of the Erupting SMC WN/LBV system HD5980

Details The Changing Wind Structure of the Erupting SMC WN/LBV system HD5980 The Changing Wind Structure of the Erupting SMC WN/LBV system HD5980

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7480k&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #7480

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #7480 Hot Stars And Stellar Corpses

Scientific paper

We propose to obtain observations with STIS of the Wolf-Rayet eclipsing binary HD5980 in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a unique system which has recently undergone a giant LBV-type eruptive event, perhaps similar to the Great Eruption in Eta Carinae. Wind structure changes over the past 16 years have led to a reduction in wind velocities, enhanced visual luminosities, and spectral changes from WN3 to B1.5Ia+. The winds of the two eclipsing stars can be separated: one of the stars has a stable wind velocity of 1700 km/s while the second star's wind is highly variable, presenting clear evidence for a bimodal velocity structure. The latter is identified as the erupting star. Because of its increasingly unstable activity over the past 4 years, HD5980 may undergo further eruptive episodes in the future, and because it's wind characteristics are still changing, continued monitoring, especially at UV wavelengths, are crucial for understanding this unprecedented phenomenon. UV observations are also required in order to: a] help resolve the controversy regarding which of the two members of the binary pair erupted, information which is essential for comparison with current evolutionary models of massive stars; b] obtain high S/N line profiles for comparison with wind-wind and atmospheric eclipse models; and c] detect newly forming circumstellar structures predicted for such changing wind velocity cases. HST is currently the only observatory capable of providing the required data.

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