High-angular resolution observations of the Pistol Star

Christophe Martayan (1, 2) , Ronny Blomme (3) , Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin (4) , Antoine Merand (1) , Guillaume Montagnier (1) , Fernando Selman (1) , Julien Girard (1) , Andrew Fox (1) , Dietrich Baade (1) , Yves Fremat (3) , Alex Lobel (3) , Fabrice Martins (5) , Fabien Patru (1) , Thomas Rivinius (1) , Hugues Sana (6) , Stan Stefl (1) , Jean Zorec (7) , Thierry Semaan (2)

1 ESO - European Southern Observatory
2 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation
3 ROB - Royal Observatory of Belgium = Observatoire Royal de Belgique
4 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
5 GRAAL - Groupe de Recherche en Astronomie et Astrophysique du Languedoc
6 UvA - University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] = Universiteit van Amsterdam
7 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris

First results of near-IR adaptive optics (AO)-assisted imaging, interferometry, and spectroscopy of this Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) are presented. They suggest that the Pistol Star is at least double. If the association is physical, it would reinforce questions concerning the importance of multiplicity for the formation and evolution of extremely massive stars.\footnote{based on ESO runs 085.D-0182(A), 085.D-0625(A, C)}

Mots clés: stars: binaries; stars: circumstellar matter; stars: early-type; stars: mass loss

Domaines: Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]; Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]

Christophe Martayan, Ronny Blomme, Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin, Antoine Merand, Guillaume Montagnier, et al.. High-angular resolution observations of the Pistol Star. 2010. ⟨hal-00526826⟩