Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège -  Volume 80 - Année 2011 

Massive Stars with Circumstellar Shells Discovered with the Spitzer Space Telescope

Stefanie Wachter

PAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasasdena, USA

Jon Mauerhan

Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasasdena, USA

Schuyler Van Dyk

Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasasdena, USA

D. W. Hoard

Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasasdena, USA

Patrick Morris

NASA Herschel Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasasdena, USA

Abstract

We report on our ongoing efforts to characterize the luminous central stars of circumstellar shell sources discovered with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The objects in our selection are highly symmetric, circular and elliptical shells, most prominent at 24 micrometers, and the vast majority of the shells and central sources has never been studied previously. We obtained near-IR spectroscopic observations of the central stars and find the overwhelming number of these objects to be massive stars, including new Wolf Rayet stars and Luminous Blue Variable candidates.

Pour citer cet article

Stefanie Wachter, Jon Mauerhan, Schuyler Van Dyk, D. W. Hoard & Patrick Morris, «Massive Stars with Circumstellar Shells Discovered with the Spitzer Space Telescope», Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège [En ligne], Volume 80 - Année 2011, 291 - 296 URL : https://popups.uliege.be/0037-9565/index.php?id=2760.