Related papers: Red Supergiants, Yellow Hypergiants, and Post-RSG …
The inevitable fate of massive stars in the initial mass range of ~8--30 M_{Sun} in the red supergiant (RSG) phase is a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion, although some stars may collapse directly to a black hole. We know that this is…
The mass loss rates of red supergiants (RSGs) govern their evolution towards supernova and dictate the appearance of the resulting explosion. To study how mass-loss rates change with evolution we measure the mass-loss rates (\mdot) and…
We review the significant role played by red supergiants (RSGs) in stellar populations, and some challenges and questions they raise for theoretical stellar evolution. We present how metallicity and rotation modify the way stars go to the…
Red supergiants (RSGs) are evolved massive stars in a stage preceding core-collapse supernova. Understanding evolved-phases of these cool stars is key to understanding the cosmic matter cycle of our Universe, since they enrich the cosmos…
Massive stars becoming red supergiants lose a significant amount of their mass during that brief evolutionary phase. They then either explode as a hydrogen-rich supernova (SN Type II), or continue to evolve as a hotter supergiant (before…
Most massive stars end their lives as Red Supergiants (RSGs), a short-lived evolution phase when they are known to pulsate with varying amplitudes. The RSG period-luminosity (PL) relation has been measured in the Milky Way, the Magellanic…
Recent supernova and transient surveys have revealed an increasing number of non-terminal stellar eruptions. Though the progenitor class of these eruptions includes the most luminous stars, little is known of the pre-supernova mechanics of…
Red Supergiants (RSGs) are cool, evolved massive stars in their final evolutionary stage before exploding as a supernova. However, the evolution and fate of the most luminous RSGs remain uncertain. Observational evidence for luminous warm,…
The increasing observed number of supernova events allows for finding ever more frequently the progenitor star in archive images. In a few cases, the progenitor star is a yellow supergiant star. The estimated position in the…
The yellow hypergiants are found in a stage between the massive Red Supergiants and the Wolf-Rayet stars. This review addresses current issues concerning the evolution of massive stars, concentrating on the transitional post-Red Supergiant…
Red supergiants (RSGs) are a He-burning phase in the evolution of moderately high mass stars (10-25 solar masses). The evolution of these stars, particularly at low metallicities, is still poorly understood. The latest-type RSGs in the…
Red supergiants (RSGs) are a He-burning phase in the evolution of moderately massive stars (10-25 solar masses). For many years, the assumed physical properties of these stars placed them at odds with the predictions of evolutionary theory.…
During the red giant phase, stars loose mass at the highest rate since birth. The mass-loss rate is not fixed, but varies from star-to-star by up to 5\%, resulting in variations of the star's luminosity at the tip of the red giant branch…
We discuss the various post-main sequence phases of massive stars, focusing on Wolf-Rayet stars, Luminous Blue Variables, plus connections with other early-type and late-type supergiants. End states for massive stars are also investigated,…
The distribution of stars in the Hertzsprung Russell diagram (HRD) for a stellar conglomeration represents a snapshot of its evolving stellar population. Some of the supergiant stars may transit the HRD from blue to red and then again to…
Deriving the physical properties of red supergiants (RSGs) depends upon accurate corrections for reddening by dust. We use our recent modeling of the optical spectra of RSGs to address this topic. We find: (1) Previous broad-band studies…
Evolutionary models have shown the substantial effect that strong mass-loss rates ($\dot{M}$) can have on the fate of massive stars. Red supergiant (RSG) mass-loss is poorly understood theoretically, and so stellar models rely on purely…
We present the preliminary results of a detailed theoretical investigation on the hydrodynamical properties of Red Supergiant (RSG) stars at solar chemical composition and for stellar masses ranging from 10 to 20 M_sun. We find that the…
Stars more massive than about 8 Msun end their lives as a Supernova (SN), an event of fundamental importance Universe-wide. Theoretically, these stars have been expected to be either at the red supergiant, blue supergiant, or Wolf-Rayet…
In this series of papers, we address the long-standing question of why post-main-sequence stars expand into red giants (RGs) or red supergiants (RSGs). This paper aims to identify the key physical mechanism that drives stellar evolution…