July 11-15, 2011
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Abstract

Eclipse and Collapse of the Colliding Wind X-ray Emission from Eta Carinae

Kenji Hamaguchi (CRESST/NASA/GSFC & UMBC)

MICHAEL CORCORAN (CRESST/NASA/GSFC & USRA) THEODORE GULL (NASA/GSFC) SHUNJI KITAMOTO (Rikkyo University) KRISTER NIELSEN (Pittsburgh University) JULIAN PITTARD (University of Leeds) ANDY POLLOCK (ESA/ESAC) MASAHIRO TSUJIMOTO (ISAS/JAXA) MANABU ISHIDA (ISAS/JAXA)

Abstract: X-ray emission from the massive colliding wind binary system, Eta Carinae, plunges sharply around the peri-astron passage, the event called the X-ray minimum. An X-ray observing campaign of Eta Carinae around the periastron passage in 2003 presented two different scenarios on the mechanism --- (i) eclipse of X-ray emitting plasmas by thick primary winds and (ii) decay of the colliding wind activity by a change in the wind collision near peri-astron. We launched another focussed observing campaign of Eta Carinae around the next periastron passage in early 2009 with the RXTE, Chandra, XMM-Newton, Suzaku and Swift observatories. X-ray emission from Eta Carinae went down as in the previous minimum, though it recovered a month earlier. Change in X-ray absorption and spectral normalization suggests that the former X-ray minimum would be driven by an X-ray eclipse, while the latter minimum would be caused by an activity decay. We discuss the stellar and binary properties derived from these observations.
(to be confirmed by the SOC)