Results of KVN and ALMA observations toward WX Psc

  • Published : 2019.04.10

Abstract

We present the results of KVN and ALMA observations toward WX Psc (IRC+10011) which is a long-period variable OH/IR star. The SiO masers of v=1 and v=2, J=5-4, and the SiO thermal emission of v=0, J=5-4 were observed together with H2O v2=1 (232.6 GHz) and continuum emission at ALMA Band 6 in October 2017 (Cycle 5). This observation aims to investigate the physical association between the inner and outer parts of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) swept by the stellar winds, which is very crucial to understand the asymmetric outward motions developed during the evolutionary phases from the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars to the planetary nebulae (PNe). The strong SiO maser features and thermal emissions are detected together with the continuum emission in ALMA observation, which imply the elongated morphology of the CSE of WX Psc. While the spatial resolution of about 20 mas in ALMA observation cannot clearly resolve the detailed characteristics of the inner part of the CSE, the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) observations show the spatial distributions of the v=1 J=1-0, J=2-1, J=3-2 SiO masers emitted from the inner regions of CSE, which are the complementary to the ALMA results. Therefore, we expect these results reveal how the bipolar features of the 22 GHz H2O maser are connected to the innermost region of CSE through the dust condensation region, which is closely related to the enormous mass ejection of the evolved stars.

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