A double detached shell around a post-red supergiant: IRAS 17163-3907, the Fried Egg nebula
Abstract
Context. We performed a mid-infrared imaging survey of evolved stars to study the dust distribution in circumstellar envelopes around these objects and to understand the mass-loss mechanism responsible for the formation of these envelopes better. During this survey, we resolved the circumstellar environment of IRAS 17163-3907 for the first time (hereafter IRAS 17163), which is one of the brightest objects in the mid-infrared sky, but is surprisingly not well studied.
Aims: Our aim is to determine the evolutionary status of IRAS 17163 and study its circumstellar environment to understand its mass-loss history.
Methods: We obtained diffraction-limited images of IRAS 17163 in the mid-infrared using VISIR on the VLT. Optical spectra of the object allowed us to determine its spectral type and estimate its distance through diffuse interstellar bands.
Results: We show that IRAS 17163 is a post-red supergiant, possibly belonging to the rare class of yellow hypergiants, and is very similar to the well-studied object IRC +10420. Our mid-infrared images of IRAS 17163 are the first direct images of this bright mid-infrared source. These images clearly show a double dusty detached shell around the central star, caused by successive ejections of material on a timescale of the order of 400 years and a total circumstellar mass exceeding than 4 M⊙. This indicates that non-quiescent mass-loss occurs during this phase of stellar evolution.
- Publication:
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Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- October 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/201117521
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1109.5947
- Bibcode:
- 2011A&A...534L..10L
- Keywords:
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- circumstellar matter;
- stars: mass-loss;
- supergiants;
- infrared: stars;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in Astronomy &