Adaptive Optics Imaging of VY Canis Majoris at 2 - 5 micron with LBT/LMIRCam

Abstract

We present adaptive optics images of the extreme red supergiant VY Canis Majoris in the Ks, L' and M bands (2.15 to 4.8 micron) made with LMIRCam on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The peculiar "Southwest Clump" previously imaged from 1 to 2.2 micron appears prominently in all three filters. We find its brightness is due almost entirely to scattering, with the contribution of thermal emission limited to at most 25%. We model its brightness as optically thick scattering from silicate dust grains using typical size distributions. We find a lower limit mass for this single feature of 5E-03 Msun to 2.5E-02 Msun depending on the assumed gas-to-dust ratio. The presence of the Clump as a distinct feature with no apparent counterpart on the other side of the star is suggestive of an ejection event from a localized region of the star and is consistent with VY CMa's history of asymmetric high mass loss events.

8 pages, 5 figures; Accepted for publication in AJ on 13 Aug 2013

References in corpus (7)

• Probing the mass-loss history of AGB and red supergiant stars from CO rotational line profiles I. Theoretical model -- Mass-loss history unravelled in VY CMa
• The 3D Morphology of VY Canis Majoris. I The Kinematics of the Ejecta
• Fundamental properties and atmospheric structure of the red supergiant VY CMa based on VLTI/AMBER spectro-interferometry
• The Gray Needle: Large Grains in the HD 15115 Debris Disk from LBT/PISCES/Ks and LBTI/LMIRcam/L' Adaptive Optics Imaging
• The molecular envelope around the red supergiant VY CMa
• The 3D Morphology of VY Canis Majoris II: Polarimetry and the Line-of-Sight Distribution of the Ejecta
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Cited by in corpus (14)

• Searching for Cool Dust in the Mid-to-Far Infrared: the Mass Loss Histories of The Hypergiants $\mu$ Cep, VY CMa, IRC+10420, and $\rho$ Cas
• Large dust grains in the wind of VY Canis Majoris
• ALMA Observations of Anisotropic Dust Mass-loss in the Inner Circumstellar Environment of the Red Supergiant VY Canis Majoris
• Episodic Gaseous Outflows and Mass Loss from Red Supergiants
• ALMA observations of TiO${}_2$ around VY Canis Majoris
• Exploring the Mass Loss Histories of the Red Supergiants
• The Mass-Loss History of the Red Hypergiant VY CMa
• The Unexpected Spectrum of the Innermost Ejecta of the Red Hypergiant VY CMa
• ALMA-resolved salt emission traces the chemical footprint and inner wind morphology of VY CMa
• On massive dust clumps in the envelope of the red supergiant VY Canis Majoris
• Searching for Cool Dust: II. Infrared Imaging of the OH/IR Supergiants, NML Cyg, VX Sgr, S Per and the Normal Red Supergiants RS Per and T Per
• Red Supergiants, Yellow Hypergiants, and Post-RSG Evolution
• Thermal Emission in the Southwest Clump of VY CMa
• The Red and Yellow Hypergiants