Probing the equatorial ejecta of Eta Carinae

Statistics – Applications

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Hst Proposal Id #6501 Hot Stars

Scientific paper

{{This abstract is unchanged from the original Phase I version.}} -- The ``homunculus'', massive ejecta from Eta Carinae, is one of the most remarkable of all known bipolar objects. Its large, ragged equatorial debris-disk is particularly ill-understood, and we now suspect that this structure is critical for understanding the instability that caused Eta's Giant Eruption. By extension, this event and its morphology are important for the topic of LBVs and the top of the HR diagram. Some very successful recent HST data, including HRS observations in our Cycle 5 program, turn out to be unexpectedly relevant to the equatorial structure. Our HRS data, however, were of a tentative nature because the observing technique was tricky and had to be verified. Now those observations need to be extended. The applications are diverse. First, we need additional HRS wavelength coverage in order to see ions other than Fe II. Altogether these are needed for measuring the physical conditions in the unusual ejecta blobs and for understanding the peculiar excitation mechanisms. Equally important, we need additional observations farther out in the equatorial structure, mainly to discover the velocity structure {which is predicted to be different among various models} and also for other purposes. Finally, it is important to look for changes between Cycles 5 and 6, since this region is the site of recent radio and X-ray ``outbursts'' and has a history of spectroscopic fluctuation.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Probing the equatorial ejecta of Eta Carinae 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 Probing the equatorial ejecta of Eta Carinae, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Probing the equatorial ejecta of Eta Carinae will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1117741

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.