2005/10/26 by A. Domiciano de Souza, de Souza, A. Domiciano, T. Driebe +24
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0510736
To appear in the ASP proceedings of the Workshop "Stars with the B[e] Phenomenon"
arxiv created 2005/10/26 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present the first spectro-interferometric observations of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) of a B[e] supergiant (CPD -57 2874), performed with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) using the beam-combiner instruments AMBER (near-IR interferometry with three 8.3 m Unit Telescopes or UTs) and MIDI (mid-IR interferometry with two UTs). Our observations of the CSE are well fitted by an elliptical Gaussian model with FWHM diameters varying linearly with wavelength. Typical diameters measured are ≃1.8×3.4 mas or ≃4.5×8.5 AU (adopting a distance of 2.5 kpc) at 2.2\micron, and ≃12×15 mas or ≃30×38 AU at 12\micron. We show that a spherical dust model reproduces the SED but it underestimates the MIDI visibilities, suggesting that a dense equatorial disk is required to account for the compact dust-emitting region observed. Moreover, the derived major-axis position angle in the mid-IR (≃144\degr) agrees well with previous polarimetric data, hinting that the hot-dust emission originates in a disk-like structure. Our results support the non-spherical CSE paradigm for B[e] supergiants.