A large radio nebula around P Cygni
In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. OXFORD UNIV PRESS: Oxford. ISSN 0035-8711; e-ISSN 1365-2966, more |   |
| Author keywords | circumstellar matter, stars: individual: P Cyg, stars: mass-loss, stars: variables: other, radio continuum: stars |
| Authors | | Top | - Skinner, C.J.
- Becker, R.H.
- White, R.L.
| - Exter, K.M., more
- Barlow, M.J.
- Davis, R.J.
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| Abstract | We present a large set of radio observations of the luminous blue variable P Cygni. These include two 6-cm images obtained with MERLIN which spatially resolve the 6-cm photosphere, monitoring observations obtained at Jodrell Bank every few days over a period of two months, and VLA observations obtained every month for seven years. This combination of data shows that the circumstellar environment of P Cyg is highly inhomogeneous, that there is a radio nebula extending to almost an arcminute from the star at 2 and 6 cm, and that the radio emission is variable on a time-scale no longer than one month, and probably as short as a few days. This short-time-scale variability is difficult to explain. We present a model for the radio emission with which we demonstrate that the star has probably been losing mass at a significant rate for at least a few thousand years, and that it has undergone at least two major outbursts of increased mass loss during the past two millenia. |
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