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Register a new userA disrupted molecular torus around Eta Carinae as seen in 12CO with ALMA
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We present Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of $^{12}$CO2$-$1 emission from circumstellar material around the massive star $eta$~Carinae. These observations reveal new structural details about the cool equatorial torus located $sim$4000 au from the star. The CO torus is not a complete azimuthal loop, but rather, is missing its near side, which appears to have been cleared away. The missing material matches the direction of apastron in the eccentric binary system, making it likely that $eta$~Cars companion played an important role in disrupting portions of the torus soon after ejection. Molecular gas seen in ALMA data aligns well with the cool dust around $eta$~Car previously observed in mid-infrared (IR) maps, whereas hot dust resides at the inner surface of the molecular torus. The CO also coincides with the spatial and velocity structure of near-IR H$_2$ emission. Together, these suggest that the CO torus seen by ALMA is actually the pinched waist of the Homunculus polar lobes, which glows brightly because it is close to the star and warmer than the poles. The near side of the torus appears to be a blowout, associated with fragmented equatorial ejecta. We discuss implications for the origin of various features northwest of the star. CO emission from the main torus implies a total gas mass in the range of 0.2-1 $M_{odot}$ (possibly up to 5 $M_{odot}$ or more, although with questionable assumptions). Deeper observations are needed to constrain CO emission from the cool polar lobes.
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Single-dish sub-millimeter observations have recently revealed the existence of a substantial, chemically peculiar, molecular gas component located in the innermost circumstellar environment of the very massive luminous blue variable star $eta$ Carinae. Here, we present 5$$-resolution interferometric observations of the 1$rightarrow$0 rotational transition of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) obtained with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) toward this star. The emission is concentrated in the central few arcseconds around $eta$ Carinae and shows a clear 150 km s$^{-1}$ velocity gradient running from west-north-west (blue) to east-south-east (red). Given the extent, location, and kinematics of this molecular material, we associate it with the complex of dusty arcs and knots seen in mid-infrared emission near the center of the Homunculus nebula. Indeed, the shielding provided by this dust could help explain how molecules survive in the presence of the intense UV radiation field produced by $eta$ Carinae. The dust located in the central few arcseconds around $eta$ Carinae and the molecular component described here have most likely formed in situ, out of material expelled by the massive interacting binary system. Thus, $eta$ Carinae offers us a rare glimpse on the processes leading to the formation of dust and molecules around massive stars that are so relevant to the interpretation of dust and molecule detections at high redshifts.
We present the first images of the nebula around eta Carinae obtained with HST/WFC3, including a UV image in the F280N filter that traces MgII emission, plus contemporaneous imaging in the F336W, F658N, and F126N filters that trace near-UV continuum, [NII], and [FeII], respectively. The F336W and F658N images are consistent with previous images in these filters, and F126N shows that for the most part, [FeII] 12567 traces clumpy shocked gas seen in [NII]. The F280N image, however, reveals MgII emission from structures that have not been seen in any previous line or continuum images of eta Carinae. This image shows diffuse MgII emission immediately outside the bipolar Homunculus nebula in all directions, but with the strongest emission concentrated over the poles. The diffuse structure with prominent radial streaks, plus an anticorrelation with ionized tracers of clumpy shocked gas, leads us to suggest that this is primarily MgII resonant scattering from unshocked, neutral atomic gas. We discuss the implied structure and geometry of the MgII emission, and its relation to the Homunculus lobes and various other complex nebular structures. An order of magnitude estimate of the neutral gas mass traced by MgII is 0.02Msun, with a corresponding kinetic energy around 1e47erg. This may provide important constraints on polar mass loss in the early phases of the Great Eruption. We argue that the MgII line may be an excellent tracer of significant reservoirs of freely expanding, unshocked, and otherwise invisible neutral atomic gas in a variety of stellar outflows.
We present a high angular resolution ($sim 0.2^{primeprime}$), high sensitivity ($sigma sim 0.2$ mJy) survey of the 870 $mu$m continuum emission from the circumstellar material around 49 pre-main sequence stars in the $rho$ Ophiuchus molecular cloud. Because most millimeter instruments have resided in the northern hemisphere, this represents the largest high-resolution, millimeter-wave survey of the circumstellar disk content of this cloud. Our survey of 49 systems comprises 63 stars; we detect disks associated with 29 single sources, 11 binaries, 3 triple systems and 4 transition disks. We present flux and radius distributions for these systems; in particular, this is the first presentation of a reasonably complete probability distribution of disk radii at millimeter-wavelengths. We also compare the flux distribution of these protoplanetary disks with that of the disk population of the Taurus-Auriga molecular cloud. We find that disks in binaries are both significantly smaller and have much less flux than their counterparts around isolated stars. We compute truncation calculations on our binary sources and find that these disks are too small to have been affected by tidal truncation and posit some explanations for this. Lastly, our survey found 3 candidate gapped disks, one of which is a newly identified transition disk with no signature of a dip in infrared excess in extant observations.
The binary system eta Carinae has completed its first 5.54y orbit since the beginning of science operation of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). We are now able to investigate the high-energy gamma-ray source at the position of eta Carinae over its full orbital period. By this, we can address and confirm earlier predictions for temporal and spectral variability. New
We present ALMA and ATCA observations of the luminous blue variable rmc. The radio maps show for the first time the core of the nebula and evidence that the nebula is strongly asymmetric with a Z-pattern shape. Hints of this morphology are also visible in the archival emph{HST} $rm Halpha$ image, which overall resembles the radio emission. The emission mechanism in the outer nebula is optically thin free-free in the radio. At high frequencies, a component of point-source emission appears at the position of the star, up to the ALMA frequencies. The rising flux density distribution ($S_{ u}sim u^{0.78pm0.05}$) of this object suggests thermal emission from the ionized stellar wind and indicates a departure from spherical symmetry with $n_{e}(r)propto r^{-2}$. We examine different scenarios to explain this excess of thermal emission from the wind and show that this can arise from a bipolar outflow, supporting the suggestion by other authors that the stellar wind of rmc is aspherical. We fit the data with two collimated ionized wind models and we find that the mass-loss rate can be a factor of two or more smaller than in the spherical case. We also fit the photometry obtained by IR space telescopes and deduce that the mid- to far-IR emission must arise from extended, cool ($sim80,rm K$) dust within the outer ionized nebula. Finally we discuss two possible scenarios for the nebular morphology: the canonical single star expanding shell geometry, and a precessing jet model assuming presence of a companion star.
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