Revealing the Complex Dynamics of the Atmospheres of Red Supergiants with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer
Abstract
Massive stars lose a significant fraction of their initial mass when they evolve to red supergiants before they end their life in supernova explosions. The mass loss greatly affects their final fate. However, the mass loss from these dying supergiants is not yet understood well. Here we present our efforts to spatially resolve the dynamics of the atmospheres of red supergiants with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and the AMBER instrument to clarify the physical mechanism behind the mass loss. The VLTI/AMBER's combination of milliarcsecond spatial resolution and high spectral resolution allows us to spatially resolve stellar atmospheres and extract the dynamical information at each position over the star and the atmosphere — just like observations of the Sun.
- Publication:
-
The Messenger
- Pub Date:
- December 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015Msngr.162...46O