This proposal is linked to CHANDRA observations in December 2009/January 2010 and December 2010/January 2011. We request observations within thirty days of the CHANDRA observations. Both visits have two appropriate windows. Visit 1 (2010/2011) is similar to the STIS ERO (GO11506), but with mapping across the central 1.1", not 2.0" The map settings for visit 1 are modified to 0.05" to gain full Nyquist sampling ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Oct 16 19:27:41 GMT 2009) ----- ----- Attempting Submission 2 (Thu Nov 19 19:05:33 GMT 2009) ----- ----- Attempting Submission 3 (Fri Sep 10 13:49:15 GMT 2010) ----- Eta Car is a key object for understanding how mass and angular momentum change as a star heads towards hypernova. Periodic minima in X-rays and other wavebands show it as an extremely eccentric binary with a massive companion. A surprising change in the X-ray emission during the January 2009 X-ray minimum probably indicates a large-scale variation in the system mass loss which implies a significant change in the luminosity of one of the stars. X-ray line profiles are the best diagnostic of the wind-wind collision and the structure of the interacting winds. We propose to obtain HETGS spectra of the system during AO11 in a phase interval never before sampled, along with STIS mapping which will constrain the 3-D shape of the wind-wind interaction regions on scales of 1-1000AU.

The objective of these STIS observations is to compare the outer wind structures with the model wind-wind intearactions based on X-ray observations with CHANDRA and past observations with HST/STIS. CHANDRA observations and He I observations provide information on the current wind-wind interaction regions. Much of the wind structures are traceable via forbidden line emission. Low excitation forbidden emission ([Fe II], [Ni II]) trace the primary wind structure. High excitaiton forbidden emission ([Fe III], [Ar III], [S III] trace outer wind-wind interaction regions photo-ionized by FUV radiation, compressed by the earlier wind-wind interactions and transitioning through critical densities leading to excitation or de-excitation of metastable states. We map the central core of Eta Carinae with HST/STIS CCD medium dispersion gratings set at selected central wavelengths to record the wind interaction structure in a number of forbidden emission lines. The spectroimagery maps will provide a 3D structure RA, Dec, velocity) in these forbidden emission lines and through line ratios, will provide measures of temperature/density. We repeat these observations to follow changes in the wind-wind structure at phases 0.2 and 0.4 in the 5.54 year period of Eta Carinae. These two visits will establish the structure leading up to apastron in 2011.75. Orbit 1 has been revised to sample at half slit offsets on two grating settings. The objective is Nyquist sampling of [Fe II], [N II] and [Fe III] showing the primary wind and the interacting wind structures in 3D mode. We will be using these observations to test the SPH models of Tom Madura and looking for changes in the wind mass loss rate. 12 false 0.0 0.0 false false false false false false AVAILABLE STAR ETA CARINAE STAR This object was generated by the targetselector and retrieved from the SIMBAD database. J2000 10 45 3.9100 -59 41 4.26 J2000 POS-TARG MOSAIC DITHER 0.1 This pattern is used to map the forbidden emission line structures. STIS-ALONG-SLIT false true 15 0.0 POS-TARG STIS-PERP-TO-SLIT 90.0 1 false POS-TARG MOSAIC DITHER 0.1 This shorter pattern is to gain information on the star position which has very bright continuum. STIS-ALONG-SLIT false true 3 0.0 POS-TARG STIS-PERP-TO-SLIT 90.0 2 false POS-TARG MOSAIC DITHER 0.05 This shorter pattern is to gain information on the star position which has very bright continuum. STIS-ALONG-SLIT false true 5 0.0 POS-TARG STIS-PERP-TO-SLIT 90.0 4 false POS-TARG MOSAIC DITHER 0.05 This shorter pattern is to gain information on the star position which has very bright continuum. STIS-ALONG-SLIT false true 23 0.0 POS-TARG STIS-PERP-TO-SLIT 90.0 3 false 1284126429867 The scheduling data was generated by CASM 18.3.1. CASM was run in Phase II mode. /private/var/folders/f0/f07FIQX4FdKdME3I9j+Ewk+++TI/-Tmp-/OPVisit5283845760050133894.xml 3700 (Tic-Visit :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "01" :proposal-version -1 :trans-version "20100505" :date "10-Sep-2010 09:47:04.0" :trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0 :FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0) :number-of-orbits 2 :saa-model "24" :si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0 :data-volume 229568 :tdrss-contact-duration 0 :coron NIL ) (Tic-Obset :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "01" :obset-id "01" :pcs-mode "FGS" ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "01" :orbit-number 1 :pcs-time 333 :si-vis-utilization 3137 :al-overhead-at-end 72 :internal-dur-at-end 0 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3511 :pcs-gap 0 ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "01" :orbit-number 2 :pcs-time 222 :si-vis-utilization 3261 :al-overhead-at-end 75 :internal-dur-at-end 347 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3511 :pcs-gap 0 ) true 2 0 Peak=9290 e-, Total=15480 e-, S/N=123 two [Fe III] and one [Fe II] line within this grating coverage. Placed in earth occultation Submapping on bright stellar positions. Mapping [N II] 5755 Bright stellar core mapping WAVECAL inserted in earth occultation or after exposure 7-7 completed 1284126478335 The scheduling data was generated by CASM 18.3.1. CASM was run in Phase II mode. /private/var/folders/f0/f07FIQX4FdKdME3I9j+Ewk+++TI/-Tmp-/OPVisit3670472743417636159.xml 1260106274000 283.3205093946349 (Tic-Visit :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "02" :proposal-version -1 :trans-version "20100505" :date "10-Sep-2010 09:47:51.0" :trans-errors '(:WARNINGS 0 :ERRORS 0 :HEALTH-AND-SAFETY 0 :FATAL-ERRORS 0 :CONTINUABLE-FATALS 0) :number-of-orbits 3 :saa-model "24" :si-bright-earth-limb-angle 20.0 :data-volume 374000 :tdrss-contact-duration 0 :coron NIL ) (Tic-Obset :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "02" :obset-id "02" :pcs-mode "FGS" ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 1 :pcs-time 333 :si-vis-utilization 3117 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 507 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3511 :pcs-gap 0 ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 2 :pcs-time 222 :si-vis-utilization 3274 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 0 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3511 :pcs-gap 0 ) (Tic-Orbit :proposal-id 12013 :visit-id "02" :orbit-number 3 :pcs-time 222 :si-vis-utilization 3112 :al-overhead-at-end 0 :internal-dur-at-end 688 :dark-offset NIL :dark-utilization 0 :max-dark-utilization 1920 :low-sky "N" :pcs-visibility 3511 :pcs-gap 0 ) true 3 0 Peak=9290 e-, Total=15480 e-, S/N=123 Mapping [Fe III] and [Fe II] Submapping across bright stellar core Submapping across stellar core Submapping across stellar core Mapping [N II] across stellar core Submapping across stellar core Submapping across stellar core Mapping [S III] 6313 Mapping [S III] 9533 Submapping [S III] 9533