2009/02/16 by L. L. Kiss, J. D. Monnier, John D. Monnier +16
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0902.2602
6 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proc. of "Hot and Cool: Bridging Gaps in Massive Star Evolution", NASA Herschel Science Center, Nov 10-12, 2008
openalex publication_date 2009/02/16 · arxiv created 2009/02/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We have obtained H-band interferometric observations of three galactic red supergiant stars using the MIRC instrument on the CHARA array. The targets include AZ Cyg, a field RSG and two members of the Per OB1 association, RS Per and T Per. We find evidence of departures from circular symmetry in all cases, which can be modelled with the presence of hotspots. This is the first detection of these features in the H-band. The measured mean diameters and the spectral energy distributions were combined to determine effective temperatures. The results give further support to the recently derived hotter temperature scale of red supergiant stars by Levesque et al. (2005), which has been evoked to reconcile the empirically determined physical parameters and stellar evolutionary theories. We see a possible correlation between spottedness and mid-IR emission of the circumstellar dust, suggesting a connection between mass-loss and the mechanism that generates the spots.