SiO Maser Emission in S Per - The Movie
Abstract
The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) has been used to monitor the 43-GHz SiO (v=1, J=1-0) maser emission in the supergiant star S Persei monthly since 1999. SiO masers act as probes of the gas motions and magnetic fields of this star allowing us to investigate its extended atmosphere. Here we report the continuing results of this on-going project. Many epochs of data have been reduced and pieced together in a time-lapse movie fashion, allowing us to follow the motions of the individual maser regions. The trajectories and velocities of the SiO masers are investigated. Our findings from S Per are compared to TX Cam, which has been studied in the same fashion. We are most interested in learning out about the structure, time evolution, mass-loss process, magnetic field structure, and the physical conditions in the inner regions of these types of stars. Just as in the case of TX Cam, we have found that our images reveal that the mass loss may not be the same for all regions of the star's surface. This work is supported by the Menzel Scholarship Fund at the University of Denver, and in conjunction with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro, NM.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #200
- Pub Date:
- May 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002AAS...200.7409O