A Case Study in Astronomical 3-D Printing: The Mysterious Eta Carinae

Abstract

3-D printing moves beyond interactive 3-D graphics and provides an excellent tool for both visual and tactile learners, since 3-D printing can now easily communicate complex geometries and full color information. Some limitations of interactive 3-D graphics are also alleviated by 3-D printable models, including issues of limited software support, portability, accessibility, and sustainability. We describe the motivations, methods, and results of our work on using 3-D printing (1) to visualize and understand the Eta Car Homunculus nebula and central binary system and (2) for astronomy outreach and education, specifically, with visually impaired students. One new result we present is the ability to 3-D print full-color models of Eta Car's colliding stellar winds. We also demonstrate how 3-D printing has helped us communicate our improved understanding of the detailed structure of Eta Car's Homunculus nebula and central binary colliding stellar winds, and their links to each other. Attached to this article are full-color 3-D printable files of both a red-blue Homunculus model and the Eta Car colliding stellar winds at orbital phase 1.045. 3-D printing could prove to be vital to how astronomer's reach out and share their work with each other, the public, and new audiences.

17 pages, 9 figures, 5 embedded interactive 3-D figures, Accepted for publication in the PASP Focus Issue "Techniques and Methods for Astrophysical Data Visualization." The 3-D print files are included as ancillary material in the /anc subfolder

References in corpus (17)

• SPLASH: An interactive visualisation tool for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations
• The UV Scattering Halo of the Central Source Associated with Eta Carinae
• Incorporating interactive 3-dimensional graphics in astronomy research papers
• A multispectral view of the periodic events in eta Carinae
• Modeling the RXTE light curve of $\eta$ Carinae from a 3-D SPH simulation of its binary wind collision
• He II $\lambda$4686 emission from the massive binary system in $\eta$ Car: constraints to the orbital elements and the nature of the periodic minima
• Multi-dimensional models of circumstellar shells around evolved massive stars
• Pinwheels in the sky, with dust: 3D modeling of the Wolf-Rayet 98a environment
• The three-dimensional structure of the Eta Carinae Homunculus
• Galaxy emission line classification using 3D line ratio diagrams
• The fossil wind structures of Eta Carinae: changes across on 5.54-year cycle
• 3D radiative transfer simulations of Eta Carinae's inner colliding winds - I. Ionization structure of helium at apastron
• Near-infrared integral field spectroscopy of the Homunculus nebula around Eta Carinae using Gemini/CIRPASS
• To $v_{\infty }$ and beyond! The He I absorption variability across the 2014.6 periastron passage of $\eta$ Carinae
• 3D Printing Meets Computational Astrophysics: Deciphering the Structure of Eta Carinae's Inner Colliding Winds
• 3D Radiative Transfer in $\eta$ Carinae: Application of the SimpleX Algorithm to 3D SPH Simulations of Binary Colliding Winds
• 3D radiative transfer simulations of Eta Carinae's inner colliding winds - II: Ionization structure of helium at periastron

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Holding the Cosmos in Your Hand: Developing 3D Modeling and Printing Pipelines for Communications and Research
• Editorial: Techniques and Methods for Astrophysical Data Visualization