2012/05/09 by Kris Davidson, Roberta Humphreys · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature11166
To appear in Nature, a brief communication arising in response to Rest et al. 2012. Submitted to Nature February 17, 2012
arxiv created 2012/05/09 · arxiv updated 2015/06/05
During the years 1838-1858, the very massive star η Carinae became the prototype supernova impostor: it released nearly as much light as a supernova explosion and shed an impressive amount of mass, but survived as a star.1 Based on a light-echo spectrum of that event, Rest et al.2 conclude that "a new physical mechanism" is required to explain it, because the gas outflow appears cooler than theoretical expectations. Here we note that (1) theory predicted a substantially lower temperature than they quoted, and (2) their inferred observational value is quite uncertain. Therefore, analyses so far do not reveal any significant contradiction between the observed spectrum and most previous discussions of the Great Eruption and its physics.