Related papers: Explaining the transient fast blue absorption line…

We use the accretion model to explain the early exit of Eta Carinae from its 2009 X-ray minimum. In the accretion model the secondary star accretes mass from the primary wind near periastron passage, a process that suppresses the secondary…

A number of binary systems present evidence of enhanced activity around periastron passage, suggesting a connection between tidal interactions and these periastron effects. The aim of this investigation is to study the time-dependent…

In circumstellar gas, the complex organic molecule methanol has been found almost exclusively around young stellar objects, and is thus regarded as a signpost of recent star formation. Here we report the first probable detection of methanol…

The evolutionary state of the 198 day eclipsing binary BM Cas is examined using spectra that cover five orbital cycles. Radial velocities measured from SiII 6347 and SiII 6371 track the motion of the primary, and a mass function is found…

We present H alpha emission line spectra of 7 post-AGB stars. Typically, they have a P-Cygni type profile with a very strong emission component and a relatively narrow absorption component. These lines are formed in the fast post-AGB wind…

The B[e] phenomenon discovered nearly 50 years ago features the presence of forbidden emission lines due to extended and dense circumstellar gas and large IR excesses due to the radiation from circumstellar dust in a wide variety of objects…

Gravitationally focused wind accretion in binary systems consisting of an evolved star with a gaseous envelope and a compact accreting companion is a possible mechanism to explain mass transfer in symbiotic binaries. We study the mass…

Eta Carinae is an ideal astrophysical laboratory for studying massive binary interactions and evolution, and stellar wind-wind collisions. Recent three-dimensional (3D) simulations set the stage for understanding the highly complex 3D flows…

We analyse two ASCA observations of the highly eccentric O9III + B1III binary Iota Orionis obtained at periastron and apastron. Based on the assumption of a strong colliding winds shock between the stellar components, we expected to see…

We present NAOMI/OASIS adaptive-optics assisted integral-field spectroscopy of the transitional massive hypergiant IRC +10420, an extreme mass-losing star apparently in the process of evolving from a Red Supergiant toward the Wolf-Rayet…

Context. The mass loss from massive stars is not understood well. Eta Car is a unique object for studying the massive stellar wind during the LBV phase. It is also an eccentric binary with a period of 5.54 yr. The nature of both stars is…

A fraction of high-mass X-ray binaries are supergiant fast X-ray transients. These systems have on average low X-ray luminosities, but display short flares during which their X-ray luminosity rises by a few orders of magnitude. The leading…

Observational arguments supporting the binary explanation of the long secondary periods (LSP) phenomenon in red giants are presented. Photometry of about 1200 semiregular variables with the LSP in the Large Magellanic Cloud are analyzed…

We present theoretical X-ray line profiles from a range of model colliding wind systems. In particular, we investigate the effects of varying the stellar mass-loss rates, the wind speeds, and the viewing orientation. We find that a wide…

We present new spectra of WR 140 (HD 193793) in the JHK bands with some covering the 1.083-micron He I emission line at higher resolution, observed between 2000 October and 2003 May to cover its 2001 periastron passage. The WC7 + O4-5…

High-resolution spectroscopic observations of the W UMa-type binary Epsilon CrA obtained as a time monitoring sequence on four full and four partial nights within two weeks have been used to derive orbital elements of the system and discuss…

I compare the structures of the bipolar nebulae around the massive binary system Eta Carinae and around the low mass binary system HD 44179. While Eta Carinae is on its way to become a supernova, the Red Rectangle is on its way to form a…

The core of the nebula surrounding Eta Carinae has been observed with the VLT Adaptive Optics system NACO and with the interferometer VLTI/MIDI to constrain spatially and spectrally the warm dusty environment and the central object. In…

We report the detection of the emission line He II 4686 A in eta Carinae. The equivalent width of this line is ~100 mA along most of the 5.5-yr cycle and jumps to ~900 mA just before phase 1.0, followed by a brief disappearance. The…

Massive stars feature highly energetic stellar winds that interact whenever two such stars are bound in a binary system. The signatures of these interactions are nowadays found over a wide range of wavelengths, including the radio domain,…