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The RXTE X-ray lightcurve of Eta Car through May 11 is available at http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/corcoran/eta_car/etacar_rxte_lightcurve/ there was in increase by about 1.1 cts/s compared to May 10. If you extrapolate the May 10-11 increase linearly then the implied brightening is consistent with the next X-ray peak occurring on May 25. The linear increase is also fairly consistent with the rate of increase from the minimum on april 22 to the May 3 peak. I think this means that there the X-ray maximum will occur very near May 25, reaching a maximum of 37-38 pcu2 cts/s (layer 1), and the decline to the minimum of the X-ray eclipse should occur shortly after that. If the rate of decline to minimum occurs at the same rate as the 1997-98 eclipse ingress, then the X-ray minimum should occur on July 11, 2003. See the annotated plot at http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/corcoran/eta_car/2003.5/index.html#annotated_lc cheers Mike -- *********************************************************** Dr. Michael F. Corcoran Universities Space Research Association High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771 301-286-5576 (office) 301-286-1684 (fax) corcoran@barnegat.gsfc.nasa.gov http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/users/corcoran/bio.html ***********************************************************
Return to the Daisaku Nogami
vsnet-adm@kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp
