J/ApJ/954/65ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/954/65doi:10.26093/cds/vizier/ba-xt-21CDSDamineli A.Hillier D.J.Navarete F.Moffat A.F.J.Weigelt G.,Corcoran M.F.Gull T.R.Richardson N.D.Ho P.Madura T.I.,Espinoza-Galeas D.Hartman H.Morris P.Pickett C.S.Stevens I.R.,Russell C.M.P.Hamaguchi K.Jablonski F.J.Teodoro M.McGee P.,Cacella P.Heathcote B.Harrison K.M.Johnston M.Bohlsen T.,Di Scala G.2026-07-02T12:00:38Z2025-11-12T13:53:22ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frgiant-starsvisible-astronomyspectroscopyline-intensitiesEta Carinae ({eta} Car) exhibits a unique set of P Cygni profiles with both broad and narrow components. Over many decades, the spectrum has changed-there has been an increase in observed continuum fluxes and a decrease in FeII and HI emission-line equivalent widths. The spectrum is evolving toward that of a P Cygni star such as P Cygni itself and HDE 316285. The spectral evolution has been attributed to intrinsic variations such as a decrease in the mass-loss rate of the primary star or differential evolution in a latitudinal-dependent stellar wind. However, intrinsic wind changes conflict with three observational results: the steady long-term bolometric luminosity; the repeating X-ray light curve over the binary period; and the constancy of the dust-scattered spectrum from the Homunculus. We extend previous work that showed a secular strengthening of P Cygni absorptions by adding more orbital cycles to overcome temporary instabilities and by examining more atomic transitions. cmfgen modeling of the primary wind shows that a time-decreasing mass-loss rate is not the best explanation for the observations. However, models with a small dissipating absorber in our line of sight can explain both the increase in brightness and changes in the emission and P Cygni absorption profiles. If the spectral evolution is caused by the dissipating circumstellar medium, and not by intrinsic changes in the binary, the dynamical timescale to recover from the Great Eruption is much less than a century, different from previous suggestions.2023ApJ...954...65Dhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/954/65CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic servicerelated-toJ/A+AS/133/299 : Long-term spectroscopy of eta Carinae (Damineli+ 1998)J/A+A/343/847 : Geneva Photometry of Eta Car (van Genderen+ 1999)J/A+A/419/215 : Emission lines of Sr filament near {eta} Car (Hartman+, 2004)J/AJ/129/2018 : RXTE scaled fluxes of eta Car (Corcoran+, 2005)J/ApJS/157/138 : UV spectrum of eta Car (Nielsen+, 2005)J/ApJS/163/173 : UV spectrum of eta Car in 2003.5 (Gull+, 2006)J/ApJS/168/289 : NUV spectrum of eta Car in 2003.5 (Nielsen+, 2007)J/AJ/135/1249 : The early spectra of eta Carinae (Humphreys+, 2008)J/ApJS/181/473 : Analysis of the spectrum of {eta} Car (Nielsen+, 2009)J/A+A/493/1093 : BVRI light curves of {eta} Car (Fernandez-Lajus+, 2009)J/other/NewA/15.108 : UBVRIHa of {eta} Car in 2009 (Fernandez-Lajus+ 2010)J/ApJ/751/73 : Equivalent widths in {eta} Cat in 1998-2012 (Mehner+, 2012)J/A+A/540/A133 : {eta} Car emission spectrum (1700-10400{AA}) (Zethson+, 2012)J/A+A/564/A14 : Near-infrared photometry of {eta} Carinae (Mehner+, 2014)J/A+A/578/A122 : eta Carinae's 2014.6 spectroscopic event (Mehner+, 2015)J/ApJ/808/174 : FeII radiative transition rates (Bautista+, 2015)J/AJ/150/109 : Spectroscopy of {eta} Car in 2009 (Richardson+, 2015)J/A+A/594/A106 : eta Car velocity-resolved imaging (Weigelt+, 2016)J/ApJ/838/45 : eta Car obs. around the 2014 X-ray minimum (Corcoran+, 2017)J/MNRAS/505/963 : Vanishing natural coronagraph of eta Car (Damineli+, 2021)J/ApJ/914/47 : ISS/NICER X-ray observations of eta Car (Kashi+, 2021)J/ApJ/933/136 : 0.4-10keV X-ray monitoring of EtaCar (Espinoza-Galeas+, 2022)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/954/65https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/954/65http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/954/65https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/954/65https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/954/65http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/954/65GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapOpticaldefaultJ/ApJ/954/65/table1ObservatoriesrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintInstSpectrograph or Observer namemeta.id;instrcharAp[0.2/8] Telescope apertureminstr.tel;instr.fovfloatAp2[2.2]? Second telescope aperture for FEROSminstr.tel;instr.fovfloatnullableResMost frequent resolving powerpos.angResolutioncharN5876[1/186]? Number of measurements used in this work; HeI{lambda}5875meta.numberintnullableN6347[2/246]? Number of measurements used in this work; SiII{lambda}6347meta.numberintnullableN8750[8/141]? Number of measurements used in this work; HI Pa12 {lambda}8752meta.numberintnullableN10830[140]? Number of measurements used in this work; HeI{lambda}10830meta.numberintnullableTelFacility or observer as indicated in Table 2; column added by CDS (1)meta.id;instr.telcharprimaryNeqwNumber of equivalent width measurements from this facility (link to Table 2)meta.numberintnullableJ/ApJ/954/65/table2Equivalent width tablerecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintSpeciesAbsorption line ("HI Pa12", "HeI", "SiII")meta.id;spect.linecharlambda[5875/10830] Wavelength of Species0.1nmem.wlintHJD[47613.5/59703.5] Heliocentric Julian Date, HJD-2400000.0 (1989-03-28 to 2022-05-03 UTC)dtime.epochdoubleEWSp[-0.02/24.6] Equivalent width of Species, Angstroms0.1nmspect.line.eqWidthfloate_EWSp[0/1.3] Uncertainty in EWsp0.1nmspect.line.eqWidthfloatTelFacility for measurementmeta.id;instr.telchar