Circumstellar Environment of RX Puppis
Abstract
The symbiotic Mira, RX Pup, shows long-term variations in its mean light level due to variable obscuration by circumstellar dust. The last increase in extinction towards the Mira, between 1995 and 2000, has been accompanied by large changes in the degree of polarization in the optical and red spectral range. The lack of any obvious associated changes in the position angle may indicate the polarization variations are driven by changes in the properties of the dust grains (e.g. variable quantity of dust and variable particle size distribution, due to dust grain formation and growth) rather than changes in the viewing geometry of the scattering region(s), e.g. due to the binary rotation.
- Publication:
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Astrophysics and Space Science Library
- Pub Date:
- August 2001
- DOI:
- 10.1007/978-94-015-9688-6_35
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0103495
- Bibcode:
- 2001ASSL..265..227M
- Keywords:
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- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Paper presented at Torun 2000 conference on Post-AGB objects as a phase of stellar evolution