Object X: The Brightest Mid-infrared Point Source in M33

We discuss the nature of the brightest mid-IR point source (which we dub Object X) in the nearby galaxy M33. Although multi-wavelength data on this object have existed in the literature for some time, it had not previously been recognized as the most luminous mid-IR object in M33 because it is entirely unremarkable in both optical and near-IR light. In the Local Group Galaxies Survey, Object X is a faint red source visible in VRI and Hα but not U or B. It was easily seen at JHK_s in the Two Micron All Sky Survey. It is the brightest point source in all four Spitzer IRAC bands and is also visible in the MIPS 24 μm band. Its bolometric luminosity is ~5 × 10⁵ L _sun. The source is optically variable on short timescales (tens of days) and is also slightly variable in the mid-IR, indicating that it is a star. Archival photographic plates (from 1949 and 1991) show no optical source, so the star has been obscured for at least half a century. Its properties are similar to those of the Galactic OH/IR star IRC+10420, which has a complex dusty circumstellar structure resulting from episodic low-velocity mass ejections. We propose that Object X is an M >~ 30 M _sun evolved star obscured in its own dust ejected during episodic mass-loss events over at least ~half a century. It may emerge from its current ultra-short evolutionary phase as a hotter post-red-supergiant star analogous to M33 Var A. The existence and rarity of such objects can be an important probe of a very brief yet eventful stellar evolutionary phase.