Related papers: An impressionist view of V Hydrae. When MATISSE pa…

The well studied carbon star V Hydrae is known to exhibit a complex asymmetric environment made of a dense equatorial wind and high-velocity outflows, hinting at its transition from the AGB phase to the asymmetric planetary nebula phase. In…

Binaries are known to play a key role in the mass loss and dynamical environments of evolved stars. Stellar and sub-stellar companion interactions produce complex wind morphologies including rotating/expanding disks, bipolar outflows, and…

Carbon-rich Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are among the most important contributors of enriched materials to the interstellar medium due to their strong stellar winds. To fully characterize mass loss on the AGB, it is necessary to…

AGB stars are one of the main sources of dust production in the Galaxy. However, it is not clear what this process looks like and where the dust is condensing in the circumstellar environment. By characterizing the location of the dust and…

Stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) lose considerable amounts of matter through their dust-driven stellar winds. A number of such sources have been imaged by Herschel/PACS, revealing a diverse sample of different morphological types.…

We present visible polarimetric imaging observations of the well-studied AGB star W Hya taken with VLT/SPHERE-ZIMPOL as well as high spectral resolution long-baseline interferometric observations with the AMBER instrument of the Very Large…

Our recent visible polarimetric images of the well-studied AGB star W Hya taken at pre-maximum light (phase 0.92) with VLT/SPHERE-ZIMPOL have revealed clumpy dust clouds close to the star at ~2 Rstar. We present second-epoch SPHERE-ZIMPOL…

Aims. In a first study, we characterised the properties of the gas component in the circumstellar envelopes surrounding a sample of 29 AGB stars with UV excesses. Now we intend to complement this information with an analysis of the dust…

Context. The Mass loss of Evolved StarS (MESS) sample observed with PACS on board the Herschel Space Observatory revealed that several asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are surrounded by an asymmetric circumstellar envelope (CSE) whose…

Evolved low- to intermediate-mass stars are known to shed their gaseous envelope into a large, dusty, molecule-rich circumstellar nebula which typically develops a high degree of structural complexity. Most of the large-scale, spatially…

Stars with initial masses between $\sim0.8$ and 8~$M_\odot$ present copious mass loss during the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) at the end of their lives. The accepted mass-loss mechanism requires radiation pressure acting on dust grains…

We have carried out high-resolution spectroscopic observations of the carbon star V Hya, covering the 4.6 micron band of CO. These data, taken over 7 epochs, show that the circumstellar environment of V Hya consists of a complex…

Molecules and dust produced by the atmospheres of cool evolved stars contribute to a significant amount of the total material found in the interstellar medium. To understand the mechanism behind the mass loss of these stars, it is of…

First mid-infrared images of a sample of AGB and post-AGB carbon stars (V Hya, IRC +10216, CIT 6 and Roberts 22) obtained at La Silla Observatory (ESO, Chile) are reported. CIT 6 presents a cometary-like feature clearly seen in the…

The carbon star V Hydrae (V Hya) provides new insight into the nature of the launching mechanism of jet-like outflows that are believed to be the cause of the poorly understood transition phase of AGB stars into aspherical planetary…

Mid-IR (8 - 13 micron) interferometric data of four oxygen-rich AGB stars (R Aql, R Aqr, R Hya, and W Hya) and one carbon-rich AGB star (V Hya) were obtained with MIDI/VLTI between April 2007 and September 2009. The spectrally dispersed…

V Hya, an evolved carbon star with a complex circumstellar envelope, has two variability periods, 530d and 6000d (17 years). We analyze recent light curve data and show that both variations have benn present for at least 100 years and have…

Aims. The goal of this study is to further the understanding of the wind formation mechanism in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars through the analysis of the close environment (within a few stellar radii) of the carbon star X TrA.…

Low- and intermediate-mass stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) account for a significant portion of the dust and chemical enrichment in their host galaxy. Here we present ALMA observations of the continuum emission at 1.24 mm around…

We have performed new medium resolution spectroscopy, optical and near infrared photometry to monitor the variability of the AGB carbon star V 381 Lac. Our observations revealed rapid and deep changes in the spectrum and extreme variability…