Program: GS-2008B-Q-29

Title:Eta Carinae's Continuing Instability and Recovery -- The 2009 ``Event''
PI:Kris Davidson
Co-I(s): John Martin, Roberta Humphreys, Fred Hamann, Gary Ferland, K Ishibashi

Abstract

Eta Carinae gives us uniquely valuable clues to the behavior of extremely massive stars, in the past it has revealed serious faults in theory. Its 5.5-year cycle of spectroscopic events is beginning to be useful in this regard. Meanwhile, $\eta$ Car's structure can also be studied via its unsteady recovery from the giant ``SN Impostor'' eruption observed in the 1840s. {\it There is strong evidence that $\eta$ Car's recovery process entered a more rapid stage about 10 years ago.\/} We know that the 2003.5 spectroscopic event differed from that seen in 1998.0, but the earlier example was not observed in sufficient detail. Thus it is extremely important to observe the event predicted for 2009.0, in order to detect and assess how it differs from the well-observed event of 2003.5. This is arguably one of the most specific observational tasks that can be done in the near future regarding the structure and instabilities of the most massive stars.

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