Bringing SOUL on sky

Pinna, Enrico; Rossi, Fabio; Puglisi, Alfio; Agapito, Guido; Bonaglia, Marco; Plantet, Cedric; Mazzoni, Tommaso; Briguglio, Runa; Carbonaro, Luca; Xompero, Marco; Grani, Paolo; Riccardi, Armando; Esposito, Simone; Hinz, Phil; Vaz, Amali; Ertel, Steve; Montoya, Oscar M.; Durney, Oliver; Christou, Julian; Miller, Doug L.; Taylor, Greg; Cavallaro, Alessandro; Lefebvre, Michael

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2101.07091

“…LUCI-1 contains a 2048 × 2048 pixel Teledyne HAWAII-2RG HgCdTe detector and was configured using the N3.75 camera, which yields a plate scale of 0 1178 pixel −1 . The observations were obtained using the Single conjugate adaptive Optics Upgrade for LBT (SOUL; Pinna et al 2021), the secondgeneration adaptive optics (AO) system at LBT. The AO observations were made using Enhanced Seeing Mode (ESM).…”

Section: Ground-based Imaging and Photometrymentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exceptional Dimming Event for a Massive, Cool Supergiant in M51

Jencson

¹

,

Sand

²

,

Andrews

³

et al. 2022

ApJ

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We present the discovery of an exceptional dimming event in a cool supergiant star in the Local Volume spiral M51. The star, dubbed M51-DS1, was found as part of a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) search for failed supernovae (SNe). The supergiant, which is plausibly associated with a very young (≲6 Myr) stellar population, showed clear variability (amplitude ΔF814W ≈ 0.7 mag) in numerous HST images obtained between 1995 and 2016, before suddenly dimming by >2 mag in F814W sometime between late 2017 and mid-2019. In follow-up data from 2021, the star rebrightened, ruling out a failed supernova. Prior to its near-disappearance, the star was luminous and red (M F814W ≲ − 7.6 mag, F606W − F814W = 1.9–2.2 mag). Modeling of the pre-dimming spectral energy distribution of the star favors a highly reddened, very luminous ( log [ L / L ⊙ ] = 5.4 –5.7) star with T eff ≈ 3700–4700 K, indicative of a cool yellow or post-red supergiant (RSG) with an initial mass of ≈26–40 M ⊙. However, the local interstellar extinction and circumstellar extinction are uncertain, and could be lower: the near-IR colors are consistent with an RSG, which would be cooler (T eff ≲ 3700 K) and slightly less luminous ( log [ L / L ⊙ ] = 5.2 –5.3), giving an inferred initial mass of ≈19–22 M ⊙. In either case, the dimming may be explained by a rare episode of enhanced mass loss that temporarily obscures the star, potentially a more extreme counterpart to the 2019–2020 “Great Dimming” of Betelgeuse. Given the emerging evidence that massive evolved stars commonly exhibit variability that can mimic a disappearing star, our work highlights a substantial challenge in identifying true failed SNe.

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“…Observations were performed at the LBT with the nearinfrared LUCI camera in single conjugate adaptive optics (SCAO) mode with the second-generation AO instrument SOUL (Pinna et al 2016(Pinna et al , 2021. Images of DDO68 C were obtained in the J and H bands during two separate runs on 2021 January and 2021 March performing exposures of 120 s duration (8 s exposure × 15 frames) dithered according to a rectangular pattern with ∼4″ maximum displacement in the Xor Y-directions.…”

Section: Observations and Data Reductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DDO68 C: The Actual Appearance of a Ghost Satellite Dwarf through Adaptive Optics at the Large Binocular Telescope

Annibali

¹

,

Pinna

²

,

Hunt

³

et al. 2023

ApJL

1

0

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Through adaptive optics (AO) imaging with the SOUL+LUCI instrument at the Large Binocular Telescope we were able to resolve, for the first time, individual stars in the gas-rich galaxy DDO68 C. This system was already suggested to be interacting with the extremely metal-poor dwarf DDO68, but its nature has remained elusive so far because of the presence of a bright foreground star close to its line of sight that hampers a detailed study of its stellar population and distance. In our study, we turned this interloper star into an opportunity to have a deeper insight on DDO68 C, using it as a guide star for the AO correction. Although the new data do not allow for a direct distance measurement through the red giant branch tip method, the combined analysis of the resolved-star color–magnitude diagram, of archival GALEX far-UV and near-UV photometry, and of Hα data provides a self-consistent picture in which DDO68 C is at the same ∼13 Mpc distance as its candidate companion DDO68. These results indicate that DDO68 is a unique case of a low-mass dwarf, less massive than the Magellanic Clouds, interacting with three satellites (DDO68 C and two previously confirmed accreting systems), providing useful constraints on cosmological models and a potential explanation for its anomalous extremely low metallicity.

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“…2.1. SOUL AO at the LBT SOUL (Pinna et al 2016, Pinna et al 2021 is the upgrade of the FLAO systems (Quirós-Pacheco et al 2010) at the LBT with an electro-multiplied camera for the wavefront sensor. As FLAO, SOUL is a single conjugated AO system, using the adaptive secondary mirror as a corrector and one natural guide star for a pyramid wavefront sensor.…”

Section: Observations and Data Reductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The SOUL view of IRAS20126+4104. Kinematics and variability of the H$_2$ jet from a massive protostar

Massi¹,

Garatti²,

Cesaroni³

et al. 2023

Preprint

0

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Context. We exploit the increased sensitivity of the recently installed adaptive optics SOUL at the LBT to obtain new high-spatialresolution near-infrared images of the massive young stellar object IRAS20126+4104 and its outflow. Aims. We aim to derive the jet proper motions and kinematics, as well as to study its photometric variability by combining the novel performances of SOUL together with previous near-infrared images. Methods. We used both broad-band (K s , K ) and narrow-band (Brγ, H2) observations from a number of near-infrared cameras (UKIRT/UFTI, SUBARU/CIAO, TNG/NICS, LBT/PISCES, and LBT/LUCI1) to derive maps of the continuum and the H 2 emission in the 2.12 µm line. Three sets of images, obtained with adaptive optics (AO) systems (CIAO, in 2003; FLAO, in 2012; SOUL, in 2020), allowed us to derive the proper motions of a large number of H 2 knots along the jet. Photometry from all images was used to study the jet variability. Results. We derived knot proper motions in the range of 1.7-20.3 mas yr −1 (i.e. 13-158 km s −1 at 1.64 kpc), implying an average outflow tangential velocity of ∼ 80 km s −1 . The derived knot dynamical age spans a ∼ 200-4000 yr interval. A ring-like H 2 feature near the protostar location exhibits peculiar kinematics and may represent the outcome of a wide-angle wind impinging on the outflow cavity. Both H 2 geometry and velocities agree with those inferred from proper motions of the H 2 O masers, located at a smaller distance from the protostar. Although the total H 2 line emission from the knots does not exhibit time variations at a >0.3 mag level, we have found a clear continuum flux variation (radiation scattered by the dust in the cavity opened by the jet) which is anti-correlated between the blue-shifted and red-shifted lobes and may be periodic (with a period of ∼ 12 − 18 yr). We suggest that the continuum variability might be related to inner-disc oscillations which have also caused the jet precession.

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Bringing SOUL on sky

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

An Exceptional Dimming Event for a Massive, Cool Supergiant in M51

An Exceptional Dimming Event for a Massive, Cool Supergiant in M51

DDO68 C: The Actual Appearance of a Ghost Satellite Dwarf through Adaptive Optics at the Large Binocular Telescope

The SOUL view of IRAS20126+4104. Kinematics and variability of the H$_2$ jet from a massive protostar

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