Space Sciences Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1341; USA

The current status of our knowledge of the HR 2142 system is reviewed. The mass flow in the system and its long-term behavior are currently being studied using IUE HIRES data obtained between 1979-95 and archival Copernicus observations acquired in the late 1970s. Some recent results are summarized here. The strength and velocity behavior of the infall components to the Si II, IV lines seen during the primary shell phase from  0.70-0.98 resemble that observed in conventional Algol systems. The inferred mass infall rate of   10^-7  Myr^-1, however, is too small to account for the massive H-emitting disk about the primary. The cause for the mass outflow observed during the secondary shell phase is still unknown. The nature of the secondary star, which remains undetected, is discussed. The small amount of residual flux in the UV that might be attributed to the secondary weakens the assumption that it must be an O subdwarf as in the  Per system, but further studies are warranted.

To appear in: 2001, "Interacting Astronomers: A Symposium on Mirek Plavec's Favourite Stars", Publications of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic No. 89, Ed. by P. Harmanec, P. Hadrava and I. Hubeny, pp. 30-35

Preprints from gjpeters@mucen.usc.edu
or on the web at http://sunkl.asu.cas.cz/~had/peters.ps