Collaborative Research: Using Spectroscopy of Light Echoes to Observe the 19th Century Great Eruption of Eta Carinae

该计划将对世纪著名的爆发性大质量星星Eta Carinae的大爆发进行详细的光谱研究，目标是在爆发发生160年后发现的光回波。船底座η星是一类非终端爆发的原型，这些爆发主导了大质量恒星的质量损失，并与产生宇宙中最明亮的超新星的剧烈超新星前喷射有关。我们关于它喷发的经验信息仅限于它的视觉亮度的历史记录，因为在喷发发生时天文摄谱仪还没有发明。然而，我们最近发现的来自Eta Carinae的光回波提供了一个独特的机会，可以用现代仪器进行第二次观察，因为来自19世纪世纪爆发的光从周围恒星形成区域的附近尘埃云反射回来，现在到达了我们。通过观察我们发现的多个光回波，我们将产生一个详细的光谱时间序列的20年之久的世纪喷发的海山二号，包括短暂的增亮事件，静止时间之前和之间的高峰，和长时间的明亮阶段。了解Eta Carinae的3D效果将有助于我们对河外事件进行建模，因为我们缺乏任何空间解析的几何信息。我们将直接测试和完善火山爆发的理论，包括非终端爆炸和爱丁顿极限以上的密集连续驱动风。这项研究也很及时：它将告知人们对由当前瞬态调查和LSST的预期所推动的爆发瞬态源的快速增长的兴趣，它将为已知最明亮的超新星之前的超大质量恒星的爆发提供重要线索（在JWST努力在高红移处探测它们之前），它将为一些最近提出的关于海山二喷发本身的模型提供直接的测试。2这个计划的广泛的科学影响有几个方面。它将提供关于一颗著名的大质量星星及其历史事件的独特和及时的信息，这是了解宇宙中瞬态现象、与非终端瞬态事件有关的喷发和爆炸及其在恒星生死中的作用的基准。在STScI公共宣传部门帮助下生成的专业图形和动画的帮助下，我们还将制作一系列YouTube视频，由团队成员为非专业观众解释项目的关键方面。关于天文学传统上代表性不足的群体，通过参与NSF资助的亚利桑那州和加州理工大学波莫纳分校之间的CAMPARE交流计划，我们将招募少数民族本科生直接从事研究，亚利桑那州的研究生打算由这笔赠款资助是女性。

This program will perform a detailed spectroscopic study of the 19th century Great Eruption of the famous eruptive massive star Eta Carinae, by targeting light echoes discovered 160 years after the outburst occurred. Eta Carinae is the prototype for a class of non-terminal eruptions that dominate mass loss in massive stars and have been linked to violent pre-supernova ejections that yield the most luminous supernovae in the universe. Our empirical information about its eruption has been limited to historical accounts of its visual brightness, since the astronomical spectrograph had not yet been invented when the eruption occurred. However, our recent discovery of light echoes from Eta Carinae provides a unique opportunity to get a second look with modern instruments, because light from the 19th century eruption bounced off nearby dust clouds in the surrounding star-forming region, reaching us now. By observing the multiple light echoes we have discovered, we will produce a detailed spectral time-sequence of the 20-yr long 19th century eruption of Eta Carinae, including brief brightening events, quiescent times before and between peaks, and long-duration bright phases. Understanding the 3D effects in Eta Carinae will help us model extragalactic events where we lack any spatially resolved information about geometry. We will directly test and refine theories for the eruption that involve non-terminal explosions and dense continuum-driven winds above the Eddington limit. This study is also quite timely: It will inform a rapidly-growing interest in eruptive transient sources fueled by current transient surveys and anticipation of LSST, it will provide important clues to the eruptions from very massive stars that precede the most luminous supernovae known (in advance of JWST's efforts to detect them at high redshift), and it will provide direct tests of some very recently proposed models for the eruption of Eta Carinae itself.There are several aspects to the broad scientific impact of this program. It will provide unique and timely information about a famous massive star and its historical event that is a benchmark for understanding transient phenomena in the universe, eruptions and explosions associated with non-terminal transient events, and their role in the lives and deaths of stars. Aided by professional graphics and animations generated with the help of the STScI public outreach department, we will also produce a series of YouTube videos of team members explaining key aspects of the project for a non-specialist audience. Concerning traditionally underrepresented groups in astronomy, through participation in the NSF-funded CAMPARE exchange program between Arizona and Cal-Poly Pomona, we will recruit minority undergraduates to be directly engaged in the research, and the Arizona graduate student intended to be funded by this grant is female.