English

The angular diameter of R Doradus: a nearby Mira-like star

Astrophysics 2015-06-24 v1

Abstract

We find the angular diameter of R Doradus to be 57 +/- 5 mas, exceeding that of Betelgeuse and implying that R Dor is larger in apparent size than every star except the Sun. R Dor is shown to be closely related to the Mira variables. We estimate an effective temperature of 2740 +/- 190 K, a distance of 61 +/- 7 pc, a luminosity of 6500 +/- 1400 Lsol and a radius of 370 +/- 50 Rsol. The characteristics of R Dor are consistent with it being near the edge of a Mira instability strip. We detect non-zero closure phases from R Dor, indicating an asymmetric brightness distribution. We also observed W Hya, a small-amplitude Mira, for which we find an angular diameter of 44 +/- 4 mas.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9701021,
  title  = {The angular diameter of R Doradus: a nearby Mira-like star},
  author = {T. R. Bedding and A. A. Zijlstra and O. von der Luhe and J. G. Robertson and R. G. Marson and J. R. Barton and B. S. Carter},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9701021},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

MNRAS (accepted); 7 pages, LaTeX with necessary style file and PostScript figures