ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGING OF VY CANIS MAJORIS AT 2-5 μm WITH LBT/LMIRCam
- Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 (United States)
- Institute for Astronomy, ETH, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904 (United States)
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
We present adaptive optics images of the extreme red supergiant VY Canis Majoris in the K{sub s} , L', and M bands (2.15-4.8 μm) made with LMIRCam on the Large Binocular Telescope. The peculiar ''Southwest Clump'' previously imaged from 1 to 2.2 μm appears prominently in all three filters. We find its brightness is due almost entirely to scattering, with the contribution of thermal emission limited to at most 25%. We model its brightness as optically thick scattering from silicate dust grains using typical size distributions. We find a lower limit mass for this single feature of 5 × 10{sup –3} M {sub ☉} to 2.5 × 10{sup –2} M {sub ☉} depending on the assumed gas-to-dust ratio. The presence of the Clump as a distinct feature with no apparent counterpart on the other side of the star is suggestive of an ejection event from a localized region of the star and is consistent with VY CMa's history of asymmetric high-mass-loss events.
- OSTI ID:
- 22273353
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 146, Issue 4; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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