Related papers: A Census of B[e] Supergiants
Aims. We study a sample of eight B[e] stars with uncertain evolutionary status to shed light on the origin of their circumstellar dust. Methods. We performed a diagnostic analysis on the spectral energy distribution beyond infrared…
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…
One of the challenges for stellar astrophysics is to reach the point at which we can undertake reliable spectral synthesis of unresolved populations in young, star-forming galaxies at high redshift. Here I summarise recent studies of…
Massive BA-type supergiants are among the visually brightest stars in galaxies with active star formation. As such they are versatile tools for studies of stellar and galactochemical evolution. Moreover, they can act as distance indicators…
Massive stars often evolve in binary systems, in which binary interactions significantly affect their evolution. Massive stars in the Galaxy serve as valuable testbeds for this due to their proximity. We computed the evolution of more than…
We consider some aspects of the evolution of massive stars which can only be elucidated by means of "indirect" observations, i.e. measurements of the effects of massive stars on their environments. We discuss in detail the early evolution…
A massive star can enter the blue supergiant region either evolving directly from the main-sequence, or evolving from a previous red supergiant stage. The fractions of the blue supergiants having different histories depend on the internal…
Sub-subgiants are a new class of stars that are optically redder than normal main-sequence stars and fainter than normal subgiant stars. Sub-subgiants, and the possibly related red stragglers (which fall to the red of the giant branch),…
An increasing number of non-terminal eruptions are being found in the numerous surveys for optical transients. Very little is known about these giant eruptions, their progenitors and their evolutionary state. A greatly improved census of…
Extreme helium stars are very rare low-mass supergiants in a late stage of evolution. They are probably contracting to become white dwarfs following a violent phase of evolution which caused them to become hydrogen-deficient giants,…
Evolved stars dominate galactic spectra, enrich the galactic medium, expand to change their planetary systems, eject winds of a complex nature, produce spectacular nebulae and illuminate them, and transfer material between binary…
Binary stars are pairs of stars that are gravitationally bound, providing in some cases accurate measurements of their masses and radii. As such, they serve as excellent testbeds for the theory of stellar structure and evolution. Moreover,…
The class of B[e] supergiants is characterized by a two-component stellar wind consisting of a normal hot star wind in the polar zone and a slow and dense disk-like wind in the equatorial region. The properties of the disk wind are…
This review discusses the causes, nature, importance and observational evidence of mass loss by red supergiants. It arrives at the perception that mass loss finds its origin in the gravity which makes the star a star in the first place, and…
After a brief review of the observational evidences indicating how the populations of Be stars, red/blue supergiants, Wolf-Rayet stars vary as a function of metallicity, we discuss the implications of these observed trend for our…
The disc formation mechanism of B[e] supergiants is one of the puzzling phenomena in massive star evolution. Rapid stellar rotation seems to play an important role for the non-spherically symmetric mass-loss leading to a high-density disc…
The first stars are assumed to be predominantly massive. Although, due to the low initial abundances of heavy elements the line-driven stellar winds are supposed to be inefficient in the first stars, these stars may loose a significant…
Debris discs are commonly detected orbiting main-sequence stars, yet little is known regarding their fate as the star evolves to become a giant. Recent observations of radial velocity detected planets orbiting giant stars highlight this…
Massive stars are able to pursue their evolution through the whole sequence of burning phases. They are born hot and luminous, and live a short life before exploding as a supernova or collapsing directly into a black hole. They have a…
The evolutionary phase of B[e] stars is difficult to establish due to the uncertainties in their fundamental parameters. For instance, possible classifications for the Galactic B[e] star MWC 137 include pre-main-sequence and…