Published in

Hans Publishers, Astronomy & Astrophysics, (636), p. A123, 2020

DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201935787

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Discovery of a complex spiral-shell structure around the oxygen-rich AGB star GX Monocerotis

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Postprint: archiving forbidden
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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The circumstellar envelopes of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars exhibit a wide range of morphologies and chemical compositions that can be exploited to unravel their mass-loss history as well as binary status. Here, we present ALMA Band 6 observations centred upon the oxygen-rich, high mass-loss rate AGB star GX Mon. The resulting CO (2–1) map reveals an intricate, complex circumstellar spiral-arc structure consistent with hydrodynamical models for an AGB experiencing mass loss in a highly eccentric, close binary system with an orbital period of around 140 years. Several other transitions (including SiO, SiS, SO2, and CS) are detected in the data, however only the SO (5–4) map shows a similar – although much weaker – distribution as imaged for the CO.