Hubble Space Telescope imaging of Eta Carinae

Details Hubble Space Telescope imaging of Eta Carinae Hubble Space Telescope imaging of Eta Carinae

Aug 1991

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1991aj....102..654h&link_type=abstract

Astronomical Journal (ISSN 0004-6256), vol. 102, Aug. 1991, p. 654-657. Research supported by NASA and California Institute of T

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

57

Hubble Space Telescope, Massive Stars, Milky Way Galaxy, Nebulae, Stellar Luminosity, Stellar Models, Stellar Winds, Wolf-Rayet Stars

Scientific paper

New high spatial resolution observations of the material around Eta Carinae, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field/Planetary Camera, are presented. The star Eta Carinae is one of the most massive and luminous stars in the Galaxy, and has been episodically expelling significant quantities of gas over the last few centuries. The morphology of the bright central nebulosity (the homunculus) indicates that it is a thin shell with very well defined edges, and is clumpy on 0.2 arcsec (about 10 to the 16th cm) scales. An extension to the northeast of the star (NN/NS using Walborn's 1976 nomenclature) appears to be a stellar jet and its associated bow shock. The bow shock is notable for an intriguing series of parallel linear features across its face. The S ridge and the W arc appear to be part of a 'cap' of emission located to the SW and behind the star. Together, the NE jet and the SW cap suggest that the symmetry axis for the system runs NE-SW rather than SE-NW, as previously supposed. Overall, the data indicate that the material around the star may represent an oblate shell with polar blowouts, rather than a bipolar flow.

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