TY - JOUR
T1 - Adaptive optics imaging of Vy Canis Majoris at 2-5 μm with LBT/LMIRCam
AU - Shenoy, Dinesh P.
AU - Jones, Terry J.
AU - Humphreys, Roberta M.
AU - Marengo, Massimo
AU - Leisenring, Jarron M.
AU - Nelson, Matthew J.
AU - Wilson, John C.
AU - Skrutskie, Michael F.
AU - Hinz, Philip M.
AU - Hoffmann, William F.
AU - Bailey, Vanessa
AU - Skemer, Andrew
AU - Rodigas, Timothy
AU - Vaitheeswaran, Vidhya
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - We present adaptive optics images of the extreme red supergiant VY Canis Majoris in the Ks , L′, and M bands (2.15-4.8 μm) made with LMIRCam on the Large Binocular Telescope. The peculiar "Southwest Clump" previously imaged from 1 to 2.2 μm 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 5 × 10-3 M⊙ to 2.5 × 10-2 M ⊙ 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.
AB - We present adaptive optics images of the extreme red supergiant VY Canis Majoris in the Ks , L′, and M bands (2.15-4.8 μm) made with LMIRCam on the Large Binocular Telescope. The peculiar "Southwest Clump" previously imaged from 1 to 2.2 μm 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 5 × 10-3 M⊙ to 2.5 × 10-2 M ⊙ 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.
KW - circumstellar matter
KW - stars: activity
KW - stars: individual (VY Canis Majoris)
KW - stars: winds, outflows
KW - supergiants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884529056&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84884529056&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/0004-6256/146/4/90
DO - 10.1088/0004-6256/146/4/90
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84884529056
SN - 0004-6256
VL - 146
JO - Astronomical Journal
JF - Astronomical Journal
IS - 4
M1 - 90
ER -