Related papers: Dusty Blue Supergiants: News from High-Angular Res…
We discuss the central role that dust condensation plays in shaping the observational appearance of outflows from coalescing binary systems. As binaries begin to coalesce, they shock-heat and expel material into their surroundings.…
Far-infrared and submillimeter wavelength surveys have now established the important role of dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) in the assembly of stellar mass and the evolution of massive galaxies in the Universe. The brightest of these…
Recently available near-infrared interferometric data on late-type stars show a strong increase of diameter for asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars between the K (2.0 - 2.4 \mu m) and L (3.4 - 4.1 \mu m) bands. Aiming at an explanation of…
From VLT/NACO diffraction-limited images of RY~Sgr, we report the first direct detection of heterogeneities in the circumstellar envelope of a R Coronae Borealis variable star. Several bright and very large dust clouds are seen in various…
Long-baseline optical interferometers can now detect and resolve hot dust emission thought to arise at the inner edge of circumstellar disks around young stellar objects (YSOs). We argue that the near-infrared sizes being measured are…
A review of the status of the knowledge in the field of High-energy cosmic particles is presented. The spectrum, arrival direction distribution and composition measurements are summarized, together with some implications for the…
The recent HST optical images, and the optical and ultraviolet spectra, of Magellanic planetary nebulae (PNe), together with the large data-base that has been collected in the past decade, allows unprecedented insight in the evolution of…
Interstellar dust forms during stellar mass-loss events, occurring either during a star's giant phase or during supernova explosions. This PhD thesis provides an in-depth investigation into the theory of dust condensation and growth,…
Understanding the infrared emission of galaxies is critical to observational and theoretical investigations of the condensation of galaxies out of the intergalactic medium and the conversion of gas into stars over cosmic time. From an…
The mechanism by which supergiant (sg)B[e] stars support cool, dense dusty discs/tori and their physical relationship with other evolved, massive stars such as luminous blue variables is uncertain. In order to investigate both issues we…
B[e] supergiants (B[e]SGs) are evolved massive stars in a short-lived transition phase. During this phase, these objects eject large amounts of material, which accumulates in a circumstellar disk-like structure. The expelled material is…
The processes by which red supergiants lose mass are not fully understood thus-far and their mass-loss rates lack theoretical constraints. The ambient surroundings of the nearby M0.5 Iab star Antares offers an ideal environment to obtain…
CONTEXT: Simple geometrical ring models account well for near-infrared interferometric observations of dusty disks surrounding pre-main sequence stars of intermediate mass. Such models demonstrate that the dust distribution in these disks…
In this review, I concentrate on describing observations of spatially resolved emission in symbiotic stars at sub-arcsecond scales. In some of the closer objects, the highest resolutions discussed here correspond to linear dimensions…
The aim of this review is to describe the nature, formation and evolution of the three kinds of high mass X-ray binary (HMXB) population: i. systems hosting Be stars (BeHMXBs), ii. systems accreting the stellar wind of supergiant stars…
In this paper we present new models of massive stars based on recent advancements in the theory of diffusive mixing and a new empirical formulation of the mass-loss rates of red supergiant stars. We compute two sets of stellar models of…
The R Coronae Borealis (RCB) variables are rare, hydrogen-deficient, carbon-rich supergiants known for large, erratic declines in brightness due to dust formation. Recently, the number of known RCB stars in the Milky Way and Magellanic…
The blue supergiant (BSG) problem, namely, the overabundance of BSGs inconsistent with classical stellar evolution theory, remains an open question in stellar astrophysics. Several theoretical explanations have been proposed, which may be…
Direct determination of fundamental stellar parameters has many profound and wide-ranging impacts throughout astrophysics. These determinations are rooted in high angular resolution observations. In particular, as long-baseline optical…
Massive stars lose a large fraction of their original mass over the course of their evolution. These stellar winds shape the surrounding medium according to parameters that are the result of the characteristics of the stars, varying over…