Related papers: Revealing evolved massive stars with Spitzer
We present a catalog of 5324 massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), with accurate spectral types compiled from the literature, and a photometric catalog for a subset of 3654 of these stars, with the goal of exploring their…
WRA 751 is an evolved massive star in our Galaxy closely resembling Luminous Blue Variable stars (LBVs). It is surrounded by a nitrogen enriched nebula of ab out 23" diameter. A comparative study of the nebula's morphology and kinematics is…
The stellar mass-luminosity relation is poorly constrained by observations for high mass stars. We describe our program to find eclipsing massive binaries in the Magellanic Clouds using photometry of regions rich in massive stars, and our…
On the route towards merging neutron stars and stripped-envelope supernovae, binary population synthesis predicts a large number of post-interaction systems with massive stars that have stripped off their outer layers. Yet, observations of…
The Magellanic clouds are uniquely placed to study the stellar contribution to dust emission. Individual stars can be resolved in these systems even in the mid-infrared, and they are close enough to allow detection of infrared excess caused…
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is the nearest low-metallicity dwarf galaxy. Its proximity and low reddening has enabled us to detect its Wolf-Rayet (WR) star population with 12 known objects. Quantitative spectroscopy of the stars…
Clusters or associations of early-type stars are often associated with a 'superbubble' of hot gas. The formation of such superbubbles is caused by the feedback from massive stars. The complex N206 in the Large Magellanic Cloud exhibits a…
I review recent progress on understanding eruptions of unstable massive stars, with particular attention to the diversity of observed behavior in extragalatic optical transient sources that are generally associated with giant eruptions of…
There is observational evidence that supports the existence of Very Massive Stars in the local universe. First, very massive stars (Mini<=320 M) have been observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud . Second, there are observed SNe that bear the…
We present a variability study of 4646 massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with known spectral types from the catalog of Bonanos et al. (2010) using the light curves from the OGLE-III database. The goal is to exploit the time…
We analyze the late time evolution of 12 supernovae (SNe) occurring over the last ${\sim}$41 years, including nine Type IIP/L, two IIb, and one Ib/c, using UBVR optical data from the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and difference imaging.…
The luminous blue variable (LBV) RMC143 is located in the outskirts of the 30~Doradus complex, a region rich with interstellar material and hot luminous stars. We report the $3\sigma$ sub-millimetre detection of its circumstellar nebula…
(shortened) We investigate the properties of Galactic WR stars and their environment to identify evolutionary channels that may lead to the formation of LGRBs. To this purpose we compile available information on the spectropolarimetric…
Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are the evolved descendants of the most massive stars and show emission-line dominated spectra formed in their powerful stellar winds. Marking the final evolution stage before core collapse, the standard picture of WR…
This paper discusses the location of a sample of planetary nebulae on the HR diagram. We determine the internal velocity fields of 14 planetary nebulae from high-resolution echelle spectroscopy, with the help of photoionization models. The…
We discuss the role of mass loss for the evolution of the most massive stars, highlighting the role of the predicted bi-stability jump that might be relevant for the evolution of rotational velocities during or just after the main sequence.…
Recent results for Galactic and Magellanic Cloud Wolf-Rayet stars are summarised based on line blanketed, clumped model atmospheres together with UV, optical and IR spectroscopy. The trend towards earlier WN and WC spectral types with…
Long gamma-ray bursts involve the most powerful cosmic explosions since the Big Bang. Whilst it has been established that GRBs are related to the death throes of massive stars, the identification of their progenitors has proved challenging.…
Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are expected to play an important role in massive stellar evolution as well as being the progenitors of some of the most luminous supernovae known. In this paper we provide a multiwavelength study of the…
Using a code that employs a self-consistent method for computing the effects of photoionization on circumstellar gas dynamics, we model the formation of wind-driven nebulae around massive Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars. Our algorithm incorporates a…