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In circumstellar gas, the complex organic molecule methanol has been found almost exclusively around young stellar objects, and is thus regarded as a signpost of recent star formation. Here we report the first probable detection of methanol around an evolved high-mass star, in the complex circumstellar environment around the Luminous Blue Variable $eta$ Carinae, while using ALMA to investigate molecular cloud conditions traced by CO (2-1) in an orbit phase of the massive binary preceding the 2020 periastron. Favoring methanol over a $^{13}$CS alternative, the emission originates from hot ($T_{rm{gas}} simeq$ 700 K) material, $sim$2$$ (0.02 pc) across, centered on the dust-obscured binary in contrast to the CO which traces inner layers of the extended massive equatorial torus, and is accompanied by prominent absorption in a cooler ($T_{rm{gas}} simeq$ 110 K) layer of gas. We also report detections of water in $Herschel$/HIFI observations at 557 GHz and 988 GHz. The methanol abundance is several to 50 times higher than observed towards several lower mass stars, while water abundances are similar to those observed in cool, dense molecular clouds. The very high methanol:water abundance ratio in the core of $eta$ Carinae may suggest methanol formation processes similar to Fischer-Tropsch-type catalytic reactions on dust grains. These observations prove that complex molecule formation can occur in the chemically evolved environments around massive stars in the end stages of their evolution, given sufficient gas densities and shielding conditions as may occur in material around massive interacting companions and merger remnants.
The periodic spectroscopic events in eta Carinae are now well established and occur near the periastron passage of two massive stars in a very eccentric orbit. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the variations of different spectral feat
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 $eta$ Carin
We present images of $eta$ Carinae in the recombination lines H30$alpha$ and He30$alpha$ and the underlying continuum with 50~mas resolution (110 AU), obtained with ALMA. For the first time, the 230 GHz continuum image is resolved into a compact core
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,
As a product of the maser monitoring program with the 26m telescope of the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), we present an unprecedented, contemporaneous flaring event of 10 maser transitions in hydroxyl, methanol, and water that