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The Nebula Surrounding the B[e] Supergiant R4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

A. Pasquali ,
A. Nota ,
N. Langer ,
R.E. Schulte-Ladbeck  and
M. Clampin
A. Pasquali
Affiliation:
ST-ECF, ESO, Garching bei München, D-85748, Germany
A. Nota
Affiliation:
STScI, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
N. Langer
Affiliation:
Institut für Physik, Universität Potsdam, D-14415, Germany
R.E. Schulte-Ladbeck
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
M. Clampin
Affiliation:
STScI, Baltimore, MD21218, USA

Abstract

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New, NTT observations of the B[e] supergiant RMC4 in the Small Magellanic Cloud show that the star is embedded in a circumstellar nebula, whose velocity structure is typical of a bipolar outflow. The nebula is kinematically associated with RMC4 and expanding at 100 km/s on average. Its diameter as computed from the spatial extension of its spectral lines is of 8.6″ which corresponds to a linear size of 2.4 pc and gives a dynamical age of 12500 yr. The line ratio [NII]λ6584/[SII]λ6717 indicates that the nebula is nitrogen enriched as it is expected for ejected nebulae. This is the first bipolar outflow detected around a well-established B[e] supergiant which also belongs to a binary system. The nebular morphology and chemistry are consistent with the picture of a binary merger in which RMC4 was composed by a close pair and a third star (the observed companion). The close pair merged into a single star (the present B[e] supergiant) and produced a circumstellar nebula to be later shaped by the ensuing B star wind (cf. Langer & Heger 1998).

Type
1. Overview
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 175: The Be Phenomenon in Early-Type Stars , 2000 , pp. 100 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2000

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