Related papers: A Census of B[e] Supergiants
The present paper reviews massive star (initial mass smaller than 120 M0) and very massive star (initial mass larger than 120 M0) evolution. I will focus on evolutionary facts and questions that may critically affect predictions of…
Massive stars play a major role in the evolution of their host galaxies, and serve as important probes of the distant Universe. It has been established that the majority of massive stars reside in close binaries and will interact with their…
The modelling of massive star evolution is a complex task, and is very sensitive to the way physical processes (such as convection, rotation, mass loss, etc.) are included in stellar evolution code. Moreover, the very high observed fraction…
Almost all massive stars explode as supernovae and form a black hole or neutron star. The remnant mass and the impact of the chemical yield on subsequent star formation and galactic evolution strongly depend on the internal physics of the…
Blue supergiant stars of B and A spectral types are amongst the visually brightest non-transient astronomical objects. Their intrinsic brightness makes it possible to obtain high quality optical spectra of these objects in distant galaxies,…
Thanks to the high spatial resolution provided by long baseline interferometry, it is possible to understand the complex circumstellar geometry around stars with the B[e] phenomenon. These stars are composed by objects in different…
The characteristics of the various types of B[e] stars are discussed and compared with those of classical Be stars. Both groups of stars are characterized by the presence of emission lines in their spectra, in particular of hydrogen.…
Red supergiants are the largest stars known with some of the highest mass loss rates observed. They are the final stage in the evolution of the majority of massive stars. The unexpected discovery of high mass loss episodes in many red…
Binary stars are as common as single stars. Binary stars are of immense importance to astrophysicists because that they allow us to determine the masses of the stars independent of their distances. They are the cornerstone of the…
B[e] stars are massive B type emission line stars in different evolutionary stages ranging from pre-main sequence to post-main sequence. Due to their mass loss and ejection events these objects deposit huge amounts of mass and energy into…
Context. B supergiants (BSGs) represent an important connection between the main sequence and more extreme evolutionary stages of massive stars. Additionally, lying toward the cool end of the hot star regime, determining their wind…
The yellow supergiant content of nearby galaxies provides a critical test of massive star evolutionary theory. While these stars are the brightest in a galaxy, they are difficult to identify because a large number of foreground Milky Way…
Red supergiants (RSGs) are an evolved He-burning phase in the lifetimes of moderately high mass (10 - 25 solar mass) stars. The physical properties of these stars mark them as an important and extreme stage of massive stellar evolution, but…
Core collapse of dense massive star clusters is unavoidable and this leads to the formation of massive objects, with a mass up to 1000 $\msun$ and even larger. When these objects become stars, stellar wind mass loss determines their…
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…
Massive stars less massive than ~30 Msol evolve into a red supergiant after the main sequence. Given a standard IMF, this means about 80% of all single massive stars will experience this phase. RSGs are dominated by convection, with 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…
Variable B supergiants (BSGs) constitute a heterogeneous group of stars with complex photometric and spectroscopic behaviours. They exhibit mass-loss variations and experience different types of oscillation modes, and there is growing…
How massive stars end their lives remains an open question in the field of star evolution. While the majority of stars above 9 M_sun will become red supergiants (RSGs), the terminal state of these massive stars can be heavily influenced by…
Several decades of observations of the most massive and most luminous stars have revealed a complex upper HR Diagram, shaped by mass loss, and inhabited by a variety of evolved stars exhibiting the consequences of their mass loss histories.…