Periodic X-ray Variability of Eta Carinae

Session 26 - Proto Stars to Supernovae.
Oral session, Monday, June 08
Sierra,

[26.04] Periodic X-ray Variability of Eta Carinae

M. F. Corcoran (USRA/LHEA/GSFC), K. Ishibashi, K. Davidson (U Minnesota), J. H. Swank, R. Petre (LHEA/GSFC), R. Viotti (IAS)

Recent observations of the X-ray emission from the very luminous star Eta Carinae by RXTE, ASCA, and SAX prove that the X-ray variability first reported by ROSAT in 1992 (Corcoran et al. 1995) is periodic. The X-ray lightcurve undergoes a "low state" every 5.5 years which appears to be an occultation event. The X-ray low state coincides with the disappearance of excited He lines which mark the recurrence of the so-called "shell events" (Damineli 1996). We discuss the behavior of the X-ray emission during the most recent "low state" and consider observed variations in column density and observed and intrinsic source brightness in terms of binary and single-star models.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/corcoran/eta_car/eta_car.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the the Web space for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back button on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: corcoran@barnegat.gsfc.nasa.gov

Program listing for Monday