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- Radio emission from the massive stars in Westerlund 1
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Radio emission from the massive stars in Westerlund 1
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Abstract
The diverse massive stellar population in the young massive clusterWesterlund 1 (Wd 1) provides an ideal laboratory to observe and constrain mass-loss processes throughout the transitional phase of massive star evolution. A set of high sensitivity radio observations of Wd 1 leads to the detection of 18 cluster members, a sample dominated by cool hypergiants, but with detections among hotter OB supergiants and WR stars. Here the diverse radio properties of the detected sample are briefly described. The mass-loss rates of the detected objects are surprisingly similar across the whole transitional phase of massive star evolution, at ~ 10-5 Mo yr−1. Such a rate is insufficient to strip away the H-rich mantle in a massive star lifetime, unless the stars go through a period of enhanced mass-loss. The radio luminous star W9 provides an example of such an object, with evidence for two eras of mass-loss with rates of ~ 10−4 Mo yr−1.
To cite this article
About: S.M. Dougherty
NRC-HIA, Penticton, Canada, and Institute for Space Imaging Science, University of Calgary, Canada
About: J.S. Clark
Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
About: I. Negueruela
University de Alicante, Alicante, Spain
About: T.W. Johnson
NRC-HIA, Penticton, Canada, and University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
About: J.M. Chapman
Australia Telescope National Facility, Sydney, Australia