The red hypergiant VY CMa is remarkable for its very visible record of high mass loss events observed over the range of wavelengths from the optical and infrared to the submillimeter region with ALMA. The SW Clump or SW knots are unique in the ejecta of VY CMa. Except for the central star, they are the brightest sources of dusty infrared emission in its complex ejecta. In this paper we combine the proper motions from the HST images, and infrared fluxes from 2 to 12 microns with the 12CO images from ALMA to determine their ages and mass estimates. The SW knots were ejected more than 200 years ago with an active period lasting about 30 years, and with a total mass in the Clump more than 0.02 Solar masses.
@article{arxiv.2503.01995,
title = {The Infrared-Bright SW Knots in the Complex Ejecta of VY CMa},
author = {Roberta M. Humphreys and Terry J. Jones and Kris Davidson and A. M. S. Richards and M. Ravi and A. P. Singh and L. M. Ziurys},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.01995},
year = {2025}
}