Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T15:56:31.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Crossing the “Yellow Void” – Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy of the Post–Red Supergiant IRC+10420

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Roberta M. Humphreys ,
Kris Davidson  and
Nathan Smith
Roberta M. Humphreys
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Kris Davidson
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Nathan Smith
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

IRC+10420 is a post–red supergiant at the empirical luminosity boundary in the HR diagram. It has now reached a stage in its blueward evolution where increasing opacity and partial ionization destabilize its atmosphere leading to rapid mass loss. Indeed, its wind is so dense that it is opaque and hides the underlying star. We have obtained HST/STIS spectroscopy with spatial resolution good enough to separate the star from its complex ejecta with numerous arcs, knots and jet-like features. The ejecta form essentially a reflection nebula, allowing us to view the star from a range of directions. The kinematics of the ejecta cannot be reconciled with existing models with either an equatorial disk or a bipolar outflow. Therefore we propose a model with a uniform spherically symmetric outflow of gas with random, asymmetric ejections superimposed. In our model, local instabilities allow for inflowing and outflowing material to coexist.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 187: Exotic Stars as Challenges to Evolution , 2002 , pp. 95 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2002

References

de Jager, C. 1998, A&A Rev., 8, 145 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R.M., & Davidson, K. 1994, PASP, 106, 1025 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R.M., Davidson, K., & Smith, N. 2002, AJ, 124, 1026 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R.M., Strecker, D.W., Murdock, T.L., & Low, F.J. 1973, ApJ, 179, L49 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R.M., et al. 1997, AJ, 114, 2778 Google Scholar
Jones, T.J., et al. 1993, ApJ, 411, 323 Google Scholar
Oudmaijer, R.D. 1995, Doctoral Dissertation, Evolved Stars with Circumstellar Shells, Rijksuniversiteit GroningenGoogle Scholar
Oudmaijer, R.D., Geballe, T.R., Waters, L.B.F.M., & Sahu, K.C. 1994, A&A, 281, L33 Google Scholar
Oudmaijer, R.D., Groenewegen, M.A.T., Matthews, H.E., Blommaert, J.A.D., & Sahu, K.C. 1996, MNRAS, 280, 1062 Google Scholar