Sr II and [Sr II] emission in the ejecta of eta carinae

We have discovered four extremely surprising emission lines of strontium in ejecta near eta Carinae. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Space Telescope Imag ing Spectrograph (STIS) observations made in 1999 show two narrow features whose wavelengths correspond to the forbidden transitions of Sr II, and we have found no other plausible identification for these lines. The identific ations are confirmed by new HST/STIS observations of the same stellar posit ion, in which the Sr II resonance lines are observed. Moreover, [Ti II], [N i II], [Mn II], and [Co II] lines are unusually strong relative to [Fe II] at the same position.