Unirationality of the Hurwitz space H_(9,8)

In this paper we prove that the Hurwitz space H_{9,8}, which parameterizes 8-sheeted covers of P^1 by curves of genus 9, is unirational. Our construction leads to an explicit Macaulay2 code, which will randomly produce a nodal curve of degree 8 of geometric genus 9 with 12 double points and together with a pencil of degree 8.