Betelgeuse and the red supergiants

Abstract

Betelgeuse is one of the most magnificent stars in the sky, and one of the nearest red supergiants. Astronomers gathered in Paris in the Autumn of 2012 to decide what we know about its structure, behaviour, and past and future evolution, and how to place this in the general context of the class of red supergiants. Here I reflect on the discussions and propose a synthesis of the presented evidence. I believe that, in those four days, we have achieved to solve a few riddles.

Summary talk of the Betelgeuse workshop, November 2012, Paris. To be published in the European Astronomical Society Publications Series, editors: Pierre Kervella, Thibaut Le Bertre & Guy Perrin

References in corpus (15)

• The rotation rates of massive stars: the role of binary interaction through tides, mass transfer and mergers
• NLTE line formation of Fe for late-type stars. I. Standard stars with 1D and <3D> model atmospheres
• The Effective Temperatures and Physical Properties of Magellanic Cloud Red Supergiants: The Effects of Metallicity
• Variability in red supergiant stars: pulsations, long secondary periods and convection noise
• A massive cluster of Red Supergiants at the base of the Scutum-Crux arm
• Spitzer SAGE-SMC Infrared Photometry of Massive Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Atmospheric dynamics and the mass loss process in red supergiant stars
• The cool supergiant population of the massive young star cluster RSGC1
• The 3D Morphology of VY Canis Majoris. I The Kinematics of the Ejecta
• The enigmatic nature of the circumstellar envelope and bow shock surrounding Betelgeuse as revealed by Herschel. I. Evidence of clumps, multiple arcs, and a linear bar-like structure
• Pure rotational spectra of TiO and TiO_2 in VY Canis Majoris
• A third red supergiant rich cluster in the Scutum-Crux Arm
• The close circumstellar environment of Betelgeuse - II. Diffraction-limited spectro-imaging from 7.76 to 19.50 microns with VLT/VISIR
• Double bow shocks around young, runaway red supergiants: application to Betelgeuse
• Red supergiants around the obscured open cluster Stephenson 2

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The wind speeds, dust content, and mass-loss rates of evolved AGB and RSG stars at varying metallicity
• Properties of the CO and H${}_2$O MOLsphere of the red supergiant Betelgeuse from VLTI/AMBER observations
• {\sc precision}: A fast python pipeline for high-contrast imaging -- application to SPHERE observations of the red supergiant VX Sagitariae