Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21642305g&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #216, #423.05
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Rigel (B8 Ia; B-V = -0.03; V 0.08- 0.24 mag; 240 +/- 35 pc) is the 7th brightest star in the sky and is the nearest luminous supergiant. From evolutionary tracks, Rigel has an inferred mass of 17 +/- 3 solar masses and an age of 5-10 Myr. Interestingly, Rigel has similar physical properties to the 12th-mag blue supergiant progenitor of SN 1987A: Sanduleak -69° 202a. Rigel (along with its co-asterism Betelgeuse) is likely to be the nearest progenitor of a Type II supernova. Such a nearby explosion would have an apparent magnitude of -10.5 mag (equivalent to the light from the nearly full moon).
We report on initial results of intensive photometry and spectroscopy of Rigel carried out during 2009/10. These observations are part of an international campaign in support of nearly a month of continuous ultra-high precision photometry of Rigel with the Canadian Microsatellite MOST. These observations indicate brightness and radial velocity variations on nearly all time scales - from hours to weeks. These data are being analyzed for periods using various period-search routines. Evidence for a multitude of cyclic/periodic oscillations (with variable amplitudes) appears present in the datasets in addition to stochastic variations. These data will be used to carry out an asteroseismic study of this evolved high mass star. The preliminary results from this program are presented.
We acknowledge support for this research from NASA/MOST Grant NNX09AH28G and NSF/RUI Grants AST05-07542 and AST05-07536. We also wish to thank to thank Jaymie Matthews, Rainer Kuschnig and the MOST team for acquiring and reducing the MOST observations.
Aerts Christine
Coughlin Jared
Eaton Julia
Engle Scott
Fekel Francis
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