Eta Carinae's X-ray flares -Free Public Astronomy Lecture
February 2, 2010 |16:12 | General Information By : Team X
Eta Carinae is one of the most exotic objects in our galaxy: a very massive, extremely unstable star, possibly on the verge of going supernova. The large star in eta Car is in a highly elliptical orbit (P = 5.54 yrs, e = 0.9) with a smaller companion.
When the strong stellar winds of both stars collide, they heat the bow-shockwave head to tens of millions of degrees, yielding copious hard X-rays.
The X-ray brightness is modulated not only by the slowly varying orbital separation but also in the form of rapid variations ("flares'')
As seen during the past three orbital cycles by NASA's Rossi X-ray Telescope Explorer. I will discuss the flares in the context of understanding this exotic system.
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