Support for a Scientific Meeting on Eta Carinae and the Fate of the MOST Massive Stars; May 23-28, 2004; Jackson Lake Lodge , Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

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AST-0403638PI Humphreys, Roberta M.Eta Carinae is the most massive and most luminous star (5 million times brighter than the Sun) in our region of the Milky Way, and it has received considerable attention by astronomers in the past decade. The cause of its basic instability and its great eruption in the 1840's are still a mystery. It is a very evolved, highly unstable star with an initial mass nearly 150 times greater than the Sun and we think it is nearing the end of its short life. Eta Carinae is also the site of a spectacular bipolar nebula, has the highest continuous mass loss rate for massive stars (about a thousandth of a solar mass each year), and a peculiar 5.5 year cycle of its spectral energy distribution. Furthermore recent extensive surveys for supernovae have also produced a growing class of objects that may not be true supernovae at all, but objects very much like Eta Carinae. This meeting will explore the behavior and characteristics of Eta Carinae and objects related to it, the origin of their instabilities, the final stages of the most massive stars and their relation to large, though not extreme, stellar explosions (hypernovae) and the mysterious Gamma-ray Bursters. It will bring together people working on the most massive stars with those studying their final stages as supernovae and Gamma-ray Bursters. ***