Related papers: Triggering Eruptive Mass Ejection in Luminous Blue…
Early-type galaxies possess a dilute hot (2-10E6 K) gas that is probably the thermalized ejecta of the mass loss from evolving stars. We investigate the processes by which the mass loss from orbiting stars interacts with the stationary hot…
Previous submillimetre (submm) observations detected 0.7 solar masses of cool dust emission around the Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) star Eta Carinae. These observations were hindered by the low declination of Eta Carinae and contamination…
$\eta$~Car is one of the most massive stars in the Galaxy. It underwent a massive eruption in the 19th century, which produced the impressive bipolar Homunculus nebula now surrounding it. The central star is an eccentric binary with a…
The explosive BN/KL outflow emerging from OMC1 behind the Orion Nebula may have been powered by the dynamical decay of a non-hierarchical multiple system $\sim$500 years ago that ejected the massive stars I, BN, and source n, with…
Low- and intermediate-mass stars eject much of their mass during the late, red giant branch (RGB) phase of evolution. The physics of their strong stellar winds is still poorly understood. In the standard model, stellar pulsations extend the…
Observations of core-collapse supernovae suggest that some massive stars undergo intense mass loss shortly before explosion, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Here we report evidence of giant outbursts of clumpy material from a…
Most stars will experience episodes of substantial mass loss at some point in their lives. For very massive stars, mass loss dominates their evolution, although the mass loss rates are not known exactly, particularly once the star has left…
In addition to producing a strong gravitational signal, a short gamma-ray burst (GRB), and a compact remnant, neutron star mergers eject significant masses at significant kinetic energies. This mass ejection takes place via dynamical mass…
We present radiation-driven wind models for Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) and predict their mass-loss rates. We study the effects of lower masses and modified abundances in comparison to the normal OB supergiants, and we find that the main…
Luminous Blue Variables are massive evolved stars, here we introduce this outstanding class of objects. Described are the specific characteristics, the evolutionary state and what they are connected to other phases and types of massive…
We study the kinematics of luminous blue variables (LBVs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Using high-resolution spectra, we measure the systemic radial velocities for a sample of 16 LBVs and LBV candidates. In order to measure the net…
We discuss the events that led to the giant eruption of Eta Carinae, and find that the mid-nineteenth century (in 1838-1843) giant mass-loss outburst has the characteristics of being produced by the merger event of a massive close binary,…
During the late stages of stellar evolution in massive stars (C fusion and later), the fusion luminosity in the core of the star exceeds the star's Eddington luminosity. This can drive vigorous convective motions which in turn excite…
Eta Carinae, the most massive and luminous star known in our galaxy, is rapidly boiling matter off its surface. At any time its core could collapse into a black hole, which may result in a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that can devastate life on…
The stellar winds of massive stars show large changes in mass-loss rates and terminal velocities during their evolution from O-star through the Luminous Blue Variable phase to the Wolf-Rayet phase. The luminosity remains approximately…
Evolved massive stars are known to undergo outflow with high mass ejections, resulting in the loss of a substantial portion of their envelopes. One proposed mechanism driving these events is the release or deposition of energy within the…
Many massive stars appear to undergo enhanced mass loss during late stages of their evolution. In some cases, the ejected mass likely originates from non-terminal explosive outbursts, rather than continuous winds. Here we study the…
Observations show that luminous blue variables (LBVs) are far more dispersed than massive O-type stars, and Smith & Tombleson suggested that these large separations are inconsistent with a single-star evolution model of LBVs. Instead, they…
Several properties of massive stars with large effects of rotation and radiation are studied. We show that there are 2 roots for the equation giving the rotational velocities at break-up: 1) The usual solution, which is shown to apply when…
We construct an analytic model for the breakout of a relativistic radiation mediated shock from a stellar wind, and exploit it to calculate the observational diagnostics of the breakout signal. The model accounts for photon escape through…