Related papers: All Things Homunculus

The Homunculus reflection nebula around eta Carinae provides a rare opportunity to observe the spectrum of a star from multiple latitudes. We present STIS spectra of several positions in the Homunculus, showing directly that eta Car has an…

This work presents the first integral field spectroscopy of the Homunculus nebula around Eta Carinae in the near-infrared spectral region (J band). We confirmed the presence of a hole on the polar region of each lobe, as indicated by…

The extremely luminous and unstable star Eta Carinae is surrounded by ejecta formed during the star's giant eruption around 1843. The optical nebula consists of an inner region, the bipolar Homunculus and the outer ejecta. The X-ray…

We study the dynamics of continuum driven winds from rotating stars, and develop an approximate analytical model. We then discuss the evolution of stellar angular momentum, and show that just above the Eddington limit, the winds are…

Asymmetric variability in ultraviolet images of the Homunculus obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys/High Resolution Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that Eta Carinae is indeed a binary system. Images obtained before,…

We analyze eight epochs of Hubble Space Telescope H$\alpha$+[N II] imaging of Eta Carinae's outer ejecta. Proper motions of nearly 800 knots reveal that the detected ejecta are divided into three apparent age groups, dating to around 1250…

This paper proposes a simple model for the 19th century eruption of Eta Carinae that consists of two components: (1) a strong wind (MdotM=0.33 Msun/yr; v=200 km/s), blowing for 30 years, followed by (2) a 1e50 erg explosion in 1844. The…

We report observations of $\eta$ Carinae obtained with ALMA in the continuum of 100, 230, 280 and 660 GHz in 2012 November, with a resolution that varied from 2.88" to 0.45" for the lower and higher frequencies respectively. The source is…

We present the results of a numerical study focusing on the propagation of a hypersonic bullet subject to radiative cooling. Our goal is to explore the feasibility of such a model for the formation of ``strings'' observed in the Eta Carinae…

In our ongoing study of eta Carinae's light echoes, there is a relatively bright echo that has been fading slowly, reflecting the 1845-1858 plateau of the eruption. A separate paper discusses its detailed evolution, but here we highlight…

HR Carinae is one of the few Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) in the Galaxy. It has a nebula that appears bipolar. We have obtained imaging and high-dispersion, long-slit echelle data of the HR Car nebula, and confirmed that it is a bipolar…

Eta Carinae is a massive interacting binary system shrouded in a complex circumstellar environment whose evolution is the source of the long-term brightening observed during the last 80 years. An occulter, acting as a natural coronagraph,…

We analyze spatially resolved spectroscopic observations of the Eta Carinae binary system obtained with HST/STIS. Eta Car is enshrouded by the dusty Homunculus nebula, which scatters light emitted by the central binary and provides a unique…

FUV spectra of Eta Car, recorded across two decades with HST/STIS, document multiple changes in resonant lines caused by dissipating extinction in our line of sight. The FUV flux has increased nearly ten-fold which has led to increased…

Existing HST UV data offer many previously neglected clues to eta Car's behavior since 2000. Here we examine a subset of observations with diverse results. (1) The star's rapid change of state is confirmed by major changes in UV absorption…

Eta Carinae's inner ejecta are dominated observationally by the bright Weigelt blobs and their famously rich spectra of nebular emission and absorption lines. They are dense (n_e ~ 10^7 to 10^8 cm^-3), warm (T_e ~ 6000 to 7000 K) and slow…

During the past decade several observational and theoretical works provided evidences of the binary nature of Eta Carinae. Nevertheless, there is still no direct determination of the orbital parameters, and the different current models give…

We present XMM-Newton observations of the luminous star Eta Carinae, including a high resolution soft X-ray spectrum of the surrounding nebula obtained with the Reflection Grating Spectrometer. The EPIC image of the field around Eta Car…

Single-dish sub-millimeter observations have recently revealed the existence of a substantial, chemically peculiar, molecular gas component located in the innermost circumstellar environment of the very massive luminous blue variable star…

We discuss the events that led to the giant eruption of Eta Carinae, and find that the mid-nineteenth century (in 1838-1843) giant mass-loss outburst has the characteristics of being produced by the merger event of a massive close binary,…