Related papers: iPTF14hls as a variable hyper-wind from a very mas…
The discovery of the second equatorial ionized stellar wind from a massive young stellar object is reported. High resolution radio continuum maps of S140 IRS 1 reveal a highly elongated source that is perpendicular to the larger scale…
During the tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole (BH) of mass MBH <~ 10^7 Msun, stellar debris falls back to the BH at a rate well above the Eddington rate. A fraction of this gas is subsequently blown away from the BH,…
Observations of nearby molecular clouds detect "shells", which are likely caused by winds from young main sequence stars. However, the progenitors of these observed features are not well characterized and the mass-loss rates inferred from…
Recently published Spitzer observations of the classical Cepheid archetype delta Cephei revealed an extended dusty nebula surrounding this star and its hot companion. The infrared emission resembles a bow shock aligned with the direction of…
Fast line-driven stellar winds play an important role in the evolution of planetary nebulae. We provide global hot star wind models of central stars of planetary nebulae. The models predict wind structure including the mass-loss rates,…
One of the key questions in Astrophysics concerns the issue of whether there exists an upper-mass limit to stars, and if so, what physical mechanism sets this limit, which might also determine if the upper-mass limit is metallicity (Z)…
In an attempt to understand the extraordinarily small mass-loss rates of late-type O dwarfs, mass fluxes in the relevant part of (T_{eff}, g)-space are derived from first principles using a previously-described code for constructing moving…
The fate of massive stars up to 300 Msun is highly uncertain. Do these objects produce pair-instability explosions, or normal Type Ic supernovae? In order to address these questions, we need to know their mass-loss rates during their lives.…
The properties, impact, and fate of hot stars cannot be understood without considering their winds. Revealed to be an almost ubiquitous phenomenon in the regime of massive stars, the winds of hot stars arise from a complex physical…
We report lensing magnifications, extinction, and time-delay estimates for the first resolved, multiply-imaged Type Ia supernova iPTF16geu, at $z = 0.409$, using $Hubble\,Space\,Telescope$ ($HST$) observations in combination with supporting…
Very massive stars shed much of their mass in violent precursor eruptions as luminous blue variables (LBVs) before reaching their most likely end as supernovae, but the cause of LBV eruptions is unknown. The 19th century eruption of Eta…
We have determined accurate values of the product of the mass-loss rate and the ion fraction of P^{4+}, Mdot q(P^{4+}), for a sample of 40 Galactic O-type stars by fitting stellar-wind profiles to observations of the P V resonance doublet…
Stellar winds are a major source of uncertainty in understanding the life and deaths of massive stars. Across studies in the field, prescriptions for stellar winds differ substantially in both their physical assumptions and implementation,…
In 1981, the idea of a superwind that ends the life of cool giant stars was proposed. Extreme OH/IR-stars develop superwinds with the highest mass-loss rates known so far, up to a few 10^(-4) Msun/yr, informing our understanding of the…
Two X-ray sources were recently discovered by Irwin et al. in compact companions to elliptical galaxies to show ultra-luminous flares with fast rise (~ minute) and decay (~ hour), and with a peak luminosity ~10^{40-41} erg/s. Together with…
The final evolution of stars in the mass range 70 - 140 solar masses is explored. Depending upon their mass loss history and rotation rates, these stars will end their lives as pulsational pair-instability supernovae producing a great…
Type Iax supernovae (SN Iax) are the largest known class of peculiar white dwarf supernovae, distinct from normal Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia). The unique properties of SN Iax, especially their strong photospheric lines out to extremely late…
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…
It is well-known that ordinary supernovae (SNe) are powered by 56Ni cascade decay. Broad-lined type Ic SNe (SNe Ic-BL) are a subclass of SNe that are not all exclusively powered by 56Ni decay. It was suggested that some SNe Ic-BL are…
Type IIP (plateau) supernovae are thought to come from stars with initial mass about 8-25 solar masses that end their lives as red supergiants. The expected stellar end points can be found from evolutionary calculations and the…