Adaptive optics imaging of P Cygni in Halpha

Abstract

We obtained Halpha diffraction limited data of the LBV star P Cyg using the ONERA Adaptive Optics (AO) facility BOA at the OHP 1.52m telescope on October 1997. Taking P Cyg and the reference star 59 Cyg AO long exposures we find that P Cyg clearly exhibits a large and diffuse intensity distribution compared to the 59 Cyg's point-like source. A deconvolution of P Cyg using 59 Cyg as the Point Spread Function was performed by means of the Richardson-Lucy algorithm. P Cyg clearly appears as an unresolved star surrounded by a clumped envelope. The reconstructed image of P Cyg is compared to similar spatial resolution maps obtained from radio aperture synthesis imaging. We put independent constraints on the physics of P Cyg which agree well with radio results. We discuss future possibilities to constrain the wind structure of P Cyg by using multi-resolution imaging, coronagraphy and long baseline interferometry to trace back its evolutionary status.

10 pages, 19 Encapsulated Postscript figures

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• The Spatially Resolved Hα-Emitting Wind Structure of P Cygni
• Hot Stars Mass-loss studied with Spectro-Polarimetric INterferometry (SPIN)
• A newly-identified emission-line region around P Cygni
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• Olivier Chesneau's work on massive stars