Exploring the multifaceted circumstellar environment of the Luminous Blue Variable HR Carinae

Abstract

We present a multi-wavelength study of the Galactic Luminous Blue Variable HR Carinae, based on new high resolution mid-infrared (IR) and radio images obtained with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), which have been complemented by far-infrared Herschel-PACS observations and ATCA archive data. The Herschel images reveal the large-scale distribution of the dusty emitting nebula, which extends mainly to the North-East direction, up to 70 arcsec from the central star, and is oriented along the direction of the space motion of the star. In the mid-infrared images, the brightness distribution is characterized by two arc-shaped structures, tracing an inner envelope surrounding the central star more closely. At radio wavelengths, the ionized gas emission lies on the opposite side of the cold dust with respect to the position of the star, as if the ionized front was confined by the surrounding medium in the North-South direction. The comparison with previous data indicates significant changes in the radio nebula morphology and in the mass-loss rate from the central star, which has increased from 6.1$\times 10^{-6}$ M${}_{\odot }$yr${}^{-1}$ in 1994-1995 to $1.17\times 10^{-5}$ M${}_{\odot }$yr${}^{-1}$ in 2014. We investigate possible scenarios that could have generated the complex circumstellar environment revealed by our multi-wavelength data.

arXiv commentMNRAS, in press

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• The contribution by luminous blue variable stars to the dust content of the Magellanic Clouds
• A slowly expanding torus associated with the candidate LBV MGE 042.0787+00.5084
• A warm molecular ring in AG Car: composing the mass-loss puzzle
• LBV phenomenon and binarity: The environment of HR Car
• Study of the Galactic radio sources in the SCORPIO survey resolved by ATCA at 2.1 GHz
• Millimetre continuum from LBV stars and their environs. NIKA2 observations and Virtual Observatory data
• NIKA2 observations around LBV stars: emission from stars and circumstellar material