Abstract

Contributed Talk - Splinter DustEvol

Thursday, 12 September 2024, 17:10   (S12)

Circumstellar complexity around the nearby red supergiant NML Cygni

Elvire De Beck, Holly Andrews
Chalmers University of Technology

Massive stars efficiently lose mass at all stages of their evolution, including the red supergiant (RSG) phase. Since RSGs are progenitors to type II-P supernovae, how and how much mass is lost in this late evolutionary stage influences the supernova explosion, its light curve, the remnant, and the resultant elemental and dusty yields. However, the mass-loss process during the RSG phase is still poorly constrained. We present recent observational results on NML Cyg, a nearby RSG. Our high-angular resolution observations using NOEMA at 230GHz reveal a much larger circumstellar envelope than expected, with a high degree of complexity and containing a few 10^{-3} solar masses of hot dust close to the star.