Checking the yellow evolutionary void. Three evolutionary critical Hypergiants: HD 33579, HR 8752 & IRC +10420
Abstract
We have checked the reality of the yellow evolutionary void (which is an area in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram where atmospheres of blueward evolving super- and hypergiants are moderately unstable), by comparing one star inside the void: HD 33579 (= R76), and two at the low-temperature border of it: HR 8752 (= HD 217476, V509 Cas) and IRC+10420. We found that the first star has a large mass and a fairly stable behaviour over time. These aspects suggest, together with abundance determinations by others, that it is a fairly young, still redward-evolving supergiant. For such a star the void is not forbidden. The two other stars, HR 8752 resp. IRC+10420, have low masses which places them in the post-red blueward loop. They show indications of the expected bouncing effect for blueward returning red supergiants: when approaching the void they eject mass, resulting in a sudden reduction of T_eff and a decrease of the atmospheric acceleration to g_eff =~ zero. Thereafter T_eff and g_eff increase again. For HR 8752 two such recent `bounces' have been identified. The photometric variations of HR 8752 and of HD 33579 are due to high-l gravity-wave pulsations. Based on observations at the La Palma Observatory and the ESO Observatory in Chili.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- January 2000
- Bibcode:
- 2000A&A...353..163N
- Keywords:
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- STARS: SUPERGIANTS;
- STARS: ATMOSPHERES;
- STARS: MASS-LOSS;
- STARS: EVOLUTION;
- GRAVITATIONAL WAVES