2006MNRAS.372.1133G

We present critical, long-wavelength observations of η Carinae in the submillimetre using Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at 850 and 450 µm to confirm the presence of a large mass of warm dust around the central star. We fit a two-component blackbody to the infrared-submm spectral energy distribution and estimate between 0.3 and 0.7 M_☉of dust exists in the nebula depending on the dust absorption properties and the extent of contamination from free-free emission at the SCUBA wavelengths. These results provide further evidence that η Car's circumstellar nebula contains >10M_☉of gas, although this may have been ejected on a longer time-scale than previously thought.