Other
Scientific paper
Feb 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010head...11.4207h&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #11, #42.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.726
Other
Scientific paper
The multi-wavelength observing campaign of the colliding wind binary system Eta Carinae, targeted at its periastron passage in 2003 presented a detailed view of the flux and spectral variations of the X-ray minimum phase. The X-ray spectra showed a strange Fe K line profile, without significantly varying the hard band slope above 7 keV. The result, combined with 3D modeling studies, suggests that the X-ray minimum originates from either an eclipse of most of the emission by a porous absorber or a large change of the plasma emissivity.
The key to solve this problem would be in the deep X-ray minimum phase when X-ray emission from the central point source plunges. We therefore launched another focussed observing campaign of Eta Carinae with the Chandra, XMM-Newton and Suzaku observatories during the periastron passage in early 2009. Five Chandra spectra taken during the deep minimum revealed an underlying non-variable X-ray component from the central point source. The other, variable component, probably originated in the wind-wind collision (WWC), decreased from the hard energy band above 4 keV and recovered only in the hard band at the end. These phenomena are consistent with a picture that the hottest plasma at the WWC convex was hidden behind an optically thick absorber first and cooler plasmas in the WWC tail followed: i.e., the deep minimum would be driven by an X-ray eclipse. On the other hand, Suzaku did not find any extremely embedded X-ray source NH < 1e25 cm-2 in spectra above 10 keV during the X-ray minimum; XMM-Newton spectra showed strong deformation in the iron K line as in the last cycle; the X-ray minimum recovered earlier in 2009 without significant NH change from the 2003 cycle. These results suggest that the WWC plasma activity significantly changed during the X-ray minimum.
Corcoran Michael F.
Eta Carinae Team
Hamaguchi Kenji
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