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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
3D simulations of Betelgeuse's bow shock
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 541, Article A1, Year 2012
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Description
Betelgeuse, the bright, cool red supergiant in Orion, is moving supersonically relative to the local interstellar medium. The star emits a powerful stellar wind that collides with this medium, forming a cometary structure, a bow shock, pointing in the direction of motion. We present the first 3D hydrodynamic simulations of the formation and evolution of Betelgeuse's bow shock. The models include realistic low-temperature cooling and cover a range of plausible interstellar medium densities of 0.3-1.9 cm -3 and stellar velocities of 28-73 km? s -1. We show that the flow dynamics and morphology of the bow shock differ substantially because of the growth of Rayleigh-Taylor or Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities. The former dominate the models with slow stellar velocities resulting in a clumpy bow shock substructure, whereas the latter produce a smoother, more layered substructure in the fast models. If the mass in the bow shock shell is low, as seems to be implied by the AKARI luminosities (∼3 × 10-3 M), then Betelgeuse's bow shock is very young and is unlikely to have reached a steady state. The circular nature of the bow shock shell is consistent with this conclusion. Thus, our results suggest that Betelgeuse only entered the red supergiant phase recently. © ESO, 2012.
Authors & Co-Authors
Mohamed, S. S.
Germany, Bonn
Universität Bonn
South Africa, Cape Town
South African Astronomical Observatory
MacKey, Jonathan
Germany, Bonn
Universität Bonn
Langer, Norbert
Germany, Bonn
Universität Bonn
Statistics
Citations: 63
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1051/0004-6361/201118002
ISSN:
00046361
e-ISSN:
14320746