Related papers: Luminous Blue Variables
The strong mass loss of Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) is thought to play a critical role in massive-star evolution, but their place in the evolutionary sequence remains debated. A key to understanding their peculiar instability is their…
I discuss observational clues concerning episodic mass-loss properties of massive stars in the time before the final supernova explosion. In particular, I will focus on the mounting evidence that LBVs and related stars are candidates for…
We report optical observations of the Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) HR Carinae which show that the star has reached a visual minimum phase in 2009. More importantly, we detected absorptions due to Si IV 4088-4116 Angstroms. To match their…
We describe a search for H-alpha emission-lined stars in M31, M33, and seven dwarfs in or near the Local Group (IC 10, NGC 6822, WLM, Sextans B, Sextans A, Pegasus and the Phoenix dwarf) using interference filter imaging with the KPNO and…
Blue supergiants (BSGs) mediate between the main sequence and the late stages of massive stars, which makes them valuable for assessing the physics that drives the stars across the diverse evolutionary channels. By exploring correlations…
The luminous blue variable (LBV) phase is a poorly understood stage in the evolution of high mass stars, characterized for its brevity and instability. The surroundings of LBV stars are excellent test beds to study their dense stellar winds…
Van Marle et al. (2005) showed that circumstellar absorption lines in early Type Ib/c supernova and gamma-ray burst afterglow spectra may reveal the progenitor evolution of the exploding Wolf-Rayet star. While the quoted paper deals with…
Mass loss from massive stars located in the part of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HRD) where we find luminous blue variables (LBVs) is profoundly important for stellar evolution yet poorly understood. We use time-dependent…
We identify IRAS 16115-5044, which was previously classified as a protoplanetary nebula (PPN), as a candidate luminous blue variable (LBV). The star has high luminosity (>10$^{5.75}$ L_Sun), ensuring supergiant status, has a temperature…
Luminous blue variables are an intermediate stage in the evolution of high-mass stars characterized by extreme mass loss and substantial variability. The stars show large irregular episodic variations on timescales of years to decades in…
Recent IR surveys of the Galactic plane have revealed a large number of candidate Luminous Blue Variables. In order to verify these classifications we have been undertaking a long term spectroscopic and photometric monitoring campaign…
The star-forming galaxies of the Local Group act as our laboratories for testing massive star evolutionary models. In this review, I briefly summarize what we believe we know about massive star evolution, and the connection between OB…
We report on the discovery of a luminous blue variable (LBV) lying ~7 pc in projection from the Quintuplet cluster. This source, which we call LBV G0.120-0.048, was selected for spectroscopy owing to its detection as a strong source of…
The hot massive luminous blue variables (LBVs) represent an important evolutionary phase of massive stars. Here, we report the discovery of a new LBV -- LAMOST J0037+4016 in the distant outskirt of the Andromeda galaxy. It is located in the…
Massive stars are essential to understand a variety of branches of astronomy including galaxy and star cluster evolution, nucleosynthesis and supernovae, pulsars and black holes. It has become evident that massive star evolution is very…
Here we examine 12 Galactic clusters and OB associations containing Wolf-Rayet stars (W-Rs) and/or Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs), in order to assess the progentor masses of these evolved massive stars. We find that in the Milky Way,…
Regular intrinsic brightness variations observed in many stars are caused by pulsations. These pulsations provide information on the global and structural parameters of the star. The pulsation periods range from seconds to years, depending…
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…
Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) stars are evolved massive objects, previous to core-collapse supernova. LBVs are characterized by photometric and spectroscopic variability, produced by strong and dense winds, mass-loss events and very intense…
We report on over 13 years of optical and near-ultraviolet spectropolarimetric observations of the famous Luminous Blue Variable (LBV), P Cygni. LBVs are a critical transitional phase in the lives of the most massive stars, and achieve the…