Related papers: Massive Stars in Transition
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…
With the exception of the Big Bang, responsible for 1,2H, 3,4He, and 7Li, stars act as sources for the composition of the interstellar medium. Cosmic rays are related to the latter and very probably due to acceleration of the mixed…
Rotation in massive stars has been studied on the main sequence and during helium burning for decades, but only recently have realistic numerical simulations followed the transport of angular momentum that occurs during more advanced stages…
Gamma-ray bursts are associated with catastrophic cosmic events. They appear when a new black hole, created after the explosion of a massive star or the merger of two compact stars, quickly accretes the matter around it and ejects a…
Massive stars and supernovae (SNe) have a huge impact on their environment. Despite their importance, a comprehensive knowledge of which massive stars produce which SNe is hitherto lacking. We use a Monte Carlo method to predict the…
Late in their evolution, massive stars may undergo periods of violent instability and mass loss, but the mechanism responsible for these episodes has not been identified. We study one potential contributor: the development of local…
We review the various techniques through which wind properties of massive stars - O stars, AB supergiants, Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs), Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars and cool supergiants - are derived. The wind momentum-luminosity relation (e.g.…
Massive stars are those stars with initial masses above about 8 times that of the sun, eventually leading to catastrophic explosions in the form of supernovae. These represent the most massive and luminous stellar component of the Universe,…
Massive stars evolve across the HR diagram, losing mass along the way and forming a variety of ring nebulae. During the main sequence stage, the fast stellar wind sweeps up the ambient interstellar medium to form an interstellar bubble.…
Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the Universe. They appear connected to supernova remnants from massive stars or the merger of their remnants, and their brightness makes them temporarily detectable out to the larges…
Core-collapse supernova remnants are the nebular leftover of defunct massive stars which have died during a supernova explosion, mostly while undergoing the red supergiant phase of their evolution. The morphology and emission properties of…
Over the past five years evidence has mounted that long-duration (> 2 s) gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)--the most brilliant of all astronomical explosions--signal the collapse of massive stars in our Universe. This evidence was originally based on…
We show that, if many GRBs are indeed produced by the collapse of massive stars, GRBs and their afterglows provide a powerful probe of the very high redshift (z > 5) universe.
The progenitors of Type IIP supernovae have an apparent upper limit to their initial masses of about 20 solar masses, suggesting that the most massive red supergiants evolve to warmer temperatures before their terminal explosion. But very…
Supermassive black holes are now realized to exist in the centers of most galaxies. The recent discoveries of luminous quasars at redshifts higher than 6 require that these black holes were assembled already when the Universe was less than…
The rate of star formation varies between galaxy types and evolves with redshift. Most stars in the universe have formed in episodes of an exceptionally high star-forming activity, commonly called a starburst. We here summarize basic…
We examine the spatial distributions of LBVs, B[e] supergiants, and W-R stars in the LMC, to clarify their relative ages, evolutionary states, and relationships. This survey employs a reference catalog that was not available for previous…
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…
The evolution of massive stars is only partly understood. Observational constraints can be obtained from the study of massive stars located in young massive clusters. The ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) discovered…
The current generation of millimeter interferometers have revealed a population of compact (r <~ 0.1 pc), massive (M ~ 100 Msun) gas cores that are the likely progenitors of massive stars. I review models for the evolution of these objects…