Contents of: VI/111/./abstract/RSCHULTE_BBRACKET.abs

The following document lists the file abstract/RSCHULTE_BBRACKET.abs from catalogue VI/111.
A plain copy of the file (without headers/trailers) may be downloaded.


We propose to use ISOCAM to image the circumstellar envrionment
of luminous blue supergiants in the CO fundamental band at
4.6 micron. Spectroscopic surveys from the ground have revealed
the surprising presence of 2.3 micron CO overtone bands in emission
in about a dozen very hot, very luminous, and clearly evolved
supergiants. We present three hypotheses that 1) explain the
presence of CO as a transient penomenon, associated with
certain activity states of these stars, 2) that place the
CO in a distant region from the stars where a fast supergiant
wind compresses the outlow from a mass-losing progenitor, and
3) that associates CO with dense, self-shielding circumstellar disks.

ISOCAM is ideally suited to test these three hypothesis.
The CO observations are expected to have fundamental impact
on our understanding of massive star formation and massive star
evolution. In particular, if the CO emission is extended,
we would conclude that it arises in the post-main-sequence mass-loss
environments of massive stars. Our results would favor an
interacting-winds model for the formation of nebulae around
massive stars, similar to the now well accepted formation
mechanism of Planetary Nebulae around lower-mass stars.

If, on the other hand, CO emission is detected from the
stellar positions, we would conclude that it arises in dense,
circumstellar disks. These disks could be interpreted as prenatal
disks considering the current paradigm for low-mass star
formation and the fact that massive stars evolve extremely rapidly.

Whatever the results, the proposed CO images will provide innovative
new insights into the mass loss process in the upper HR diagram.