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Introducing the ASSESS project: Episodic Mass Loss in Evolved Massive Stars - Key to Understanding the Explosive Early Universe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2024

A. Z. Bonanos*
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece
G. Maravelias
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece Institute of Astrophysics, FORTH, Heraklion, Greece
M. Yang
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece Key Laboratory of Space Astronomy and Technology, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
F. Tramper
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Belgium
S. de Wit
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
M. Zapartas
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece
K. Antoniadis
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
E. Christodoulou
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
G. Munoz-Sanchez
Affiliation:
IASSARS, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
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Abstract

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Episodic mass loss is not understood theoretically, neither accounted for in state-of-the-art models of stellar evolution, which has far-reaching consequences for many areas of astronomy. We introduce the ERC-funded ASSESS project (2018-2024), which aims to determine whether episodic mass loss is a dominant process in the evolution of the most massive stars, by conducting the first extensive, multi-wavelength survey of evolved massive stars in the nearby Universe. It hinges on the fact that mass-losing stars form dust and are bright in the mid-infrared. We aim to derive physical parameters of ∼1000 dusty, evolved massive stars in ∼25 nearby galaxies and estimate the amount of ejected mass, which will constrain evolutionary models, and quantify the duration and frequency of episodic mass loss as a function of metallicity. The approach involves applying machine-learning algorithms to select dusty, luminous targets from existing multi-band photometry of nearby galaxies. We present the first results of the project, including the machine-learning methodology for target selection and results from our spectroscopic observations so far. The emerging trend for the ubiquity of episodic mass loss, if confirmed, will be key to understanding the explosive early Universe and will have profound consequences for low-metallicity stars, reionization, and the chemical evolution of galaxies.

Type
Contributed Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

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