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

AST-0403638PI Humphreys，Roberta M.Eta Carinae是我们银河系区域内质量最大、亮度最高的恒星(比太阳亮500万倍)，在过去的十年里受到了天文学家的相当大的关注。它的基本不稳定和1840年S大喷发的原因至今仍是一个谜。它是一颗非常进化、高度不稳定的恒星，初始质量几乎是太阳的150倍，我们认为它即将结束其短暂的生命。船底座埃塔也是一个壮观的双极星云的所在地，拥有最高的大质量恒星的连续质量损失率(每年约为太阳质量的千分之一)，其光谱能量分布有特殊的5.5年周期。此外，最近对超新星的广泛调查也产生了越来越多的天体，它们可能根本不是真正的超新星，但非常像船底座埃塔。这次会议将探索船底座和与之相关的天体的行为和特征，它们不稳定的起源，最大质量恒星的最后阶段，以及它们与大的(尽管不是极端的)恒星爆炸(超新星)和神秘的伽马射线爆发的关系。它将把研究最大质量恒星的人们与那些研究超新星和伽马射线爆发的人聚集在一起。***

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. ***