The carbon star IRC+10216: linking the complex inner region with its spherical large-scale structures
Abstract
IRC+10216 is located at the tip of the asymptotic giant branch of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram in a transition phase toward the post-asymptotic giant branch stage. Its study contributes to our knowledge of the late stage of stellar evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars, when the circumstellar matter begins to adopt the asymmetric or bipolar forms commonly found in planetary nebulae. Using the NAOS-CONICA (NACO) adaptive optics system, we have mapped the circumstellar environment of IRC+1O216 at several wavelengths and three different epochs. The NACO study provides high-resolution and high-dynamic-range information on the different features displayed by the circumstellar envelope: clumpiness and a peanut- or bipolar-like shape at small scales. The link between the inner regions and the spherical-like shells observed at large scales is displayed in these high-dynamic-range data.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- March 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2006.00274.x
- Bibcode:
- 2007MNRAS.376L...6M
- Keywords:
-
- instrumentation: adaptive optics;
- stars: AGB and post-AGB;
- circumstellar matter;
- infrared: stars