Brightness Variation of Eta Carinae Since 1998

John C. Martin, Michael D. Koppelman (Univ Minn), & The HST Treasury Program on Eta Carinae

A poster presented at the 2004 Winter American Astronomical Society Meeting in Atlanta, GA

Summary

Ground-based observations of eta Carinae lack the resolution to resolve the star from the surrounding bright ejecta where the Hubble Space Telescope has the unique advantage of being able to study the star without interference from the nebula. We present photometry of the star from HST STIS acquisition images taken over the past six years and HST ACS/HRC images taken over the past year to show:

  1. The star continues to brighten dramatically at an accelerated rate
  2. Only some optical wavelengths showed a dip in brightness at the time of the 2003.5 spectroscopic event.

We also present visual observations and photoelectric photometry of eta by the American Association of Variable Star Observers over the past thirty years. This data shows some of the same trends and fluctuations as the HST data.

The Poster

This is a color reproduction of the poster presented at the meeting.

Poster Thumbnail(640kb)

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