Massive Stars with Circumstellar Shells Discovered with the Spitzer Space Telescope

January 2011 • 2011BSRSL..80..291W

Authors • Wachter, Stefanie • Mauerhan, Jon • van Dyk, Schuyler • Hoard, D. W. • Morris, Patrick

Abstract • We report on our ongoing efforts to characterize the luminous central stars of circumstellar shell sources discovered with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The objects in our selection are highly symmetric, circular and elliptical shells, most prominent at 24μm, and the vast majority of the shells and central sources has never been studied previously. We obtained near-IR spectroscopic observations of the central stars and find the overwhelming number of these objects to be massive stars, including new Wolf Rayet stars and Luminous Blue Variable candidates.

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