Related papers: LBV (Candidate) Nebulae: Bipolarity and Outflows

The high luminosity of Very Massive Stars (VMS) means that radiative forces play an important, dynamical role both in the structure and stability of their stellar envelope, and in driving strong stellar-wind mass loss. Focusing on the…

Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are massive stars caught in a post-main sequence phase, during which they are losing a significant amount of mass. As, on one hand, it is thought that the majority of massive stars are close binaries that will…

The puzzling origin of the ``UV-upturn'' phenomenon, observed in some elliptical galaxies, has recently been settled by identifying hot HB stars as main contributors to galaxy ultraviolet luminosity excess. While a blue HB morphology seems…

The evolution of central stars of planetary nebulae can proceed in several distinct ways, either leading to H-deficiency or to H-normal surface composition. Several new simulations of the evolution channels that lead to H-deficiency are now…

We investigate the development of bipolar outflows during the early post-AGB evolution. A sample of ten OH/IR stars is observed at high angular resolution, including bipolar nebulae (OH231.8+4.2), bright post-AGB stars (HD 101584) and…

The surroundings of Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) stars are excellent laboratories to study the effects of their high UV radiation, powerful winds, and strong ejection events onto the surrounding gas and dust. The LBV G79.29+0.46 powered two…

Recent work suggests that many luminous blue variables (LBVs) and B[e] supergiants (sgB[e]) are isolated, implying that they may be products of massive binaries, kicked by partner supernovae (SNe). However, the evidence is somewhat complex…

Massive stars influence their parental molecular cloud, and it has long been suspected that the development of hydrodynamical instabilities can compress or fragment the cloud. Identifying such instabilities has proved difficult. It has been…

Three Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are located in and near the Quintuplet Cluster at the Galactic Center: the Pistol star, G0.120-0.048, and qF362. We present imaging at 19, 25, 31, and 37 {\mu}m of the region containing these three LBVs,…

Planetary Nebulae represent a powerful window into the evolution of low-intermediate mass stars that have undergone extensive mass-loss. The nebula manifests itself in an extremely wide variety of shapes, but exactly how the mass lost is…

Observations of core-collapse supernovae suggest that some massive stars undergo intense mass loss shortly before explosion, but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Here we report evidence of giant outbursts of clumpy material from a…

We review potential mass-loss mechanisms in the various evolutionary stages of massive stars, from the well-known line-driven winds of O-stars and BA-supergiants to the less-understood winds from Red Supergiants. We discuss optically thick…

Long secondary periods (LSPs), observed in a third of pulsating red giant and supergiant stars, are the only unexplained type of large-amplitude stellar variability known at this time. Numerous authors have explored various scenarios for…

Molecular outflows in the form of wide-angle winds and/or well-collimated jets are associated with young stellar objects of all luminosities. Independent studies have established that the mass outflow rate is proportional to L_bol^0.6 for…

We perform numerical simulations to investigate the stellar wind from interacting binary stars. Our aim is to find analytical formulae describing the outflow structure. In each binary system the more massive star is in the asymptotic giant…

Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are massive stars that show strong spectral and photometric variability. The question of what evolutionary stages they represent and what exactly drives their instability is still open, and thus is it…

We present the first systematic spectropolarimetric study of Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs), and find that at least half those objects studied display evidence for intrinsic polarization -- a signature of significant inhomogeneity at the…

I review the observational constraints on the stars responsible for the upturn in the UV spectra of ellipticals, ranging from galaxies in the local Universe to distant clusters. In nearby galaxies, this UV upturn is produced by a minority…

Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are massive stars with extreme luminosities, exhibiting significant irregular photometric and spectroscopic variability. This paper is dedicated to the study of dormant LBV Var$\,$2 in the galaxy M33, which…

The advanced stages of several high-mass stars are characterized by episodic mass loss shed during phases of instability. Key for assigning these stars a proper evolutionary state is to assess the composition and geometry of their ejecta…