Light echoes from the plateau in Eta Carinae’s Great Eruption reveal a two-stage shock-powered event
Light echoes from the plateau in Eta Carinae’s Great Eruption reveal a two-stage shock-powered event
We present multi-epoch photometry and spectroscopy of a light echo from eta Carinae's 19th century Great Eruption. This echo shows a steady decline over a decade, sampling the 1850s plateau of the eruption. Spectra show the bulk outflow speed increasing from 150 km/s at early times, up to 600 km/s …