9513340 White This award, covering a period of three years, will support the travel of Dr. Stephen White, Department of Astronomy at the University of Maryland, to conduct collaborative research with Dr. Robert Duncan of the Australian Telescope National Facility (AT). The research will focus on a study of the radio emission from the Southern Hemisphere star Eta Carinae. Dr. White is currently conducting research through an NSF award on radio continuum observations of active stars. This grant will add an international dimension to his current research. Radio images of Eta Carinae, thought to be among the most massive known stars in our Galaxy, can only be obtained through the 25m AT dish located at Mpora. Observations of this star have revealed extraordinary radio emissions which have made it one of the brightest radio stars in the sky. The radio flux continues to rise as gas surrounding the star apparently is being ionized by a disturbance propagating outward from the star. The goal of the investigation is to follow the evolution of the outburst and determine its nature, to study the ionized gas in order to determine the kinematics of gas ejected from the star and the cause of the different asymmetries seen in the outflow, and to determine the physical conditions in the outflow by observing the newly-ionized gas recombining.
