Red Supergiants -- The Other Side of the H-R Diagram

Abstract

Red supergiants are the largest stars known with some of the highest mass loss rates observed. They are the final stage in the evolution of the majority of massive stars. The unexpected discovery of high mass loss episodes in many red supergiants have posed questions about the role of mass loss on their final stages. The papers in this volume are timely reviews of our current understanding of this often surprising population of massive stars. This introductory paper is a brief summary of their observed properties and a historical perspective on some of the current problems on mass loss, their circumstellar environments, and their evolutionary state.

Invited review for the Galaxies Special Issue on "Red Supergiants -- Crucial Signposts for the Fate of Massive Stars."

References in corpus (18)

• A grid of MARCS model atmospheres for late-type stars I. Methods and general properties
• Binary interaction dominates the evolution of massive stars
• The death of massive stars - I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type II-P supernovae
• Observational constraints on the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae : the case for missing high mass stars
• The Effective Temperatures and Physical Properties of Magellanic Cloud Red Supergiants: The Effects of Metallicity
• The Search for Failed Supernovae with The Large Binocular Telescope: First Candidates
• The Initial Masses of the Red Supergiant Progenitors to Type-II Supernovae
• The evolution of Red Supergiants to supernova in the LMC cluster NGC 2100
• Evolved Massive Stars at Low-metallicity V. Mass-Loss Rate of Red Supergiant Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Spatially Resolved Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of the Great Dimming of Betelgeuse
• Episodic Gaseous Outflows and Mass Loss from Red Supergiants
• Exploring the Mass Loss Histories of the Red Supergiants
• The Mass-Loss History of the Red Hypergiant VY CMa
• Establishing a mass-loss rate relation for red supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• On the Red Supergiant Wind Kink. A Universal mass-loss concept for massive stars
• The Great Dimming of the hypergiant star RW Cephei: CHARA Array images and spectral analysis
• Long Term Evolution of Surface Features on the Red Supergiant AZ Cyg
• Comments on the Progenitor of NGC6946-BH1