Wright, NJ;
Wesson, R;
Drew, JE;
Barentsen, G;
Barlow, MJ;
Walsh, JR;
Zijlstra, A;
... Farnhill, HJ; + view all
(2014)
The ionized nebula surrounding the red supergiant W26 in Westerlund 1.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
, 437
(1)
L1-L5.
10.1093/mnrasl/slt127.
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Abstract
We present Hα images of an ionized nebula surrounding the M2-5Ia red supergiant (RSG) W26 in the massive star cluster Westerlund 1. The nebula consists of a circumstellar shell or ring ∼0.1 pc in diameter and a triangular nebula ∼0.2 pc from the star that in high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images shows a complex filamentary structure. The excitation mechanism of both regions is unclear since RSGs are too cool to produce ionizing photons and we consider various possibilities. The presence of the nebula, high stellar luminosity and spectral variability suggests that W26 is a highly evolved RSG experiencing extreme levels of mass-loss. As the only known example of an ionized nebula surrounding an RSG W26 deserves further attention to improve our understanding of the final evolutionary stages of massive stars.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The ionized nebula surrounding the red supergiant W26 in Westerlund 1 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnrasl/slt127 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slt127 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | circumstellar matter, stars: individual: W26, stars: mass-loss, supergiants, stars: winds, outflows |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10093784 |
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