Imaging the innermost gaseous layers of the Mira star R Car with GRAVITY-VLTI^★

¹ Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo. Postal 70264, Ciudad de Mexico 04510, Mexico
e-mail: jarosales@astro.unam.mx
² Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
³ European Southern Observatory (ESO), Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
⁴ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
⁵ Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D B2401, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁶ European Southern Observatory (ESO), Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
⁷ Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
⁸ LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France

Received: 3 November 2022
Accepted: 26 February 2023

Abstract

Context. The mass-loss mechanisms in M-type asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars are still not well understood; these include, in particular, the formation of dust-driven winds from the innermost gaseous layers around these stars. One way to understand the gas-dust interaction in these regions and its impact on the mass-loss mechanisms is through the analysis of high-resolution observations of the stellar surface and its closest environment.

Aims. We aim to characterize the inner circumstellar environment (~3 R_*) of the M-type Mira star R Car in the near-infrared at different phases of a pulsation period.

Methods. We used GRAVITY interferometric observations in the K band obtained during two different epochs over 2018. Those data were analyzed using parametric models and image reconstruction of both the pseudo-continuum and the CO band heads observed. The reported data are the highest angular resolution observations on the source in the K band.

Results. We determined sizes of R Car’s stellar disk of 16.67 ± 0.05 mas (3.03 au) in January 2018 and 14.84 ± 0.06 mas (2.70 au) in February, 2018, respectively. From our physical model, we determined temperatures and size ranges for the innermost CO layer detected around R Car. The derived column density of the CO is in the ~9.18×10¹⁸–1×10¹⁹ cm⁻² range, which is sufficient to permit dust nucleation and the formation of stable dust-driven winds. We find that magnesium composites, Mg₂SiO₄ and MgSiO₃, have temperatures and condensation distances consistent with the ones obtained for the CO layer model and pure-line reconstructed images, which are the dust types most likely to be responsible for wind formation. Our reconstructed images show evidence of asymmetrical and inhomogeneous structures, which might trace a complex and perhaps clumpy structure of the CO molecule distribution.

Conclusions. Our work demonstrates that the conditions for dust nucleation and thus for initialising dust-driven winds in M-type AGB stars are met in R Car, and we identify magnesium composites as the most probable candidates. We find structural changes between two observing epochs (which are separated by ~10% of the full pulsation period of the star) and evidence of the effects of asymmetries and clumpiness. This observational evidence is crucial to constraining the role of convection and pulsation in M-type stars.