A Runaway Red Supergiant in M31

A significant percentage of OB stars are runaways, so we can expect a similar percentage of their evolved descendants to also be runaways. However, recognizing such stars presents its own set of challenges, as these older, more evolved stars will have drifted farther from their birthplace, and thus their velocities might not be obviously peculiar. Several Galactic red supergiants (RSGs) have been described as likely runaways based on the existence of bow shocks, including Betelgeuse. Here we announce the discovery of a runaway RSG in M31 based on a 300 km s^-1 discrepancy with M31's kinematics. The star is found about 21‧ (4.6 kpc) from the plane of the disk, but this separation is consistent with its velocity and likely age (∼10 Myr). The star, J004330.06+405258.4, is an M2 I, with M_V = -5.7, {log}L/{L}_⊙ = 4.76, an effective temperature of 3700 K, and an inferred mass of 12-15M_⊙. The star may be a high-mass analog of the hypervelocity stars, given that its peculiar space velocity is probably 400-450 km s^-1, comparable to the escape speed from M31's disk.

Observations reported here were obtained at the MMT Observatory, a joint facility of the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Institution. This paper uses data products produced by the OIR Telescope Data Center, supported by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.