We construct stellar evolution models until core collapse using KEPLER (Woosley & Heger (2007)) to reproduce the observed signatures of the blue supergiant (BSG) progenitor of SN 1987A. This is based on the binary merger scenario proposed by Podsiadlowski (1992) and Ivanova et al. (2002). Various combinations of initial parameters for the binary components (M1=16–18 M⊙ and M2=5–10 M⊙) and their merging, successfully match the He, N/C and N/O ratios, along with the luminosity and effective temperature of the progenitor. Most of our models end their lives as BSGs. Thus we may be able to explain the origin of all Type IIP SNe that resemble SN 1987A through such mergers. We are currently working on the light curves and nuclear yields from the explosion of these models to compare them SN 1987A.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are considered as plausible carriers for the extended red emission (ERE), a photoluminescent process associated with a wide variety of interstellar environments, as well as for broad emission band features seen in cometary spectra. We report the absorption spectra of phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pentacene, pyrene, chrysene and triphenylene isolated at 10 K in solid argon matrices together with laser induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra at 355 nm of matrix-isolated anthracene and fluoranthene. LIF spectra are compared with the UV/blue fluorescence spectra of the Red Rectangle Nebula (RR). The LIF spectra measured in solid Ar matrices have been shifted to the predicted position of the PAH band emission in the gas phase for comparison with the astronomical observations (Fig. 1).

In the past few years, several clusters containing large numbers of red supergiants have been discovered. These clusters are amongst the most massive young clusters known in the Milky Way, with stellar masses reaching a few 104M⊙. They have provided us, for the first time, with large homogeneous samples of red supergiants of a given age. These large populations make them, despite heavy extinction along their sightlines, powerful laboratories to understand the evolutionary status of red supergiants. While some of the clusters, such as the eponymous RSGC1, are so obscured that their members are only observable in the near-IR, some of them are easily accessible, allowing for an excellent characterisation of cluster and stellar properties. The information gleaned so far from these clusters gives strong support to the idea that late-M type supergiants represent a separate class, characterised by very heavy mass loss. It also shows that the spectral-type distribution of red supergiants in the Milky Way is very strongly peaked towards M1, while suggesting a correlation between spectral type and evolutionary stage.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the most interesting components of the interstellar medium (ISM). But different from laboratory - the isolation of a single species is not possible. The spectra contain a superposition of many different molecules. Therefore a sophisticated understanding of all possible subtypes is required. We present an investigation of the IR spectra of PAHs containing (5, 7)-member ring defects. Using density functional theory, the influence of those defects on the IR spectra of coronene (C24H12) and pyrene (C16H10) and their cations and anions were examined in detail. Additionally, the potential energy surface of the neutral species is explored and an alternative formation pathway is taken into account.

We discuss the capabilities of the laboratory facility, COSmIC, that was developed to generate, process and analyze interstellar, circumstellar and planetary analogs in the laboratory

To improve our understanding of the mass loss in red supergiants (RSGs), it is of paramount importance to observe the wind acceleration region close to the star with high spatial resolution. I review the recent progress in milliarcsecond-resolution imaging of the surface and atmosphere of RSGs with optical and infrared long-baseline interferometers. The high resolution images of RSGs have revealed the true face of these behemoths, which have turned out to be very complex.

This short review is intended to be a snapshot of some recent observational facts and open questions regarding the study of chemical evolution in the innermost regions of the Milky Way, as traced by spectroscopy of cool giant and supergiant stars.

Interstellar methanol is thought to be the precursor of larger, more complex organic molecules. It holds a central role in many astrochemical models (e.g., Garrod & Herbst 2006). Methanol has also been the focus of several laboratory studies (e.g., Watanabe et al. 2004, Fuchs et al. 2009), in an effort to gain insight into grain-surface chemistry, which potentially builds chemical complexity already in the cold, dark prestellar phase. The case of methanol is a prime example of experimental work having implications on astronomical scales. Drozdovskaya et al. (2014) unified physical and chemical models to simulate infalling material during the birth of a low-mass protostar. An axisymmetric 2D semi-analytic collapse model (Visser et al. 2009), wavelength-dependent radiative transfer calculations with RADMC3D (Dullemond & Dominik 2004) and a comprehensive gas-grain chemical network (Walsh et al. 2014) were used to study two modes of protoplanetary disk formation.

Amorphous solid water (ASW) is of great importance in astrochemistry as it has been detected in star forming regions, comets, and cold solar-system objects. A key property of ASW is its porous nature (with the extent of porosity reflecting the formation and growth conditions) and the subsequent pore collapse when the ice is heated. If interstellar ices are porous there are huge implications to both the process of planet formation and the budgets of molecular gas in the solid and gas phases. It is therefore vital to understand ASW porosity over astronomically relevant conditions in order to effectively model its potential effects on these processes.

We analyze the dust emission features seen in Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) spectra of red supergiant (RSG) and oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies and in various Milky Way globular clusters. The spectra come from the Spitzer Legacy program SAGE-Spectroscopy (PI: F. Kemper), the Spitzer program SMC-Spec (PI: G. Sloan), and other archival Spitzer-IRS programs. The broad 10 and 20 micron emission features attributed to amorphous dust of silicate composition seen in the spectra show evidence for systematic differences in the centroid of both emission features between O-rich AGB and RSG populations. Radiative transfer modeling using the GRAMS grid of models of AGB and RSG stars suggests that the centroid differences are due to differences in dust properties. We investigate differences in dust composition, size, shape, etc that might be responsible for these spectral differences. We explore how these differences may arise from the different circumstellar environments around RSG and O-rich AGB stars and assess effects of varying metallicity (LMC versus SMC versus Milky Way globular cluster) and other properties (mass-loss rate, luminosity, etc.) on the dust originating from these stars. BAS acknowledges funding from NASA ADAP grant NNX13AD54G.

We are analysing late-time (older than about 150 d past explosion) optical spectra of Type II-Plateau (IIP) supernovae (SNe), which are H-rich SNe that come from red supergiant (RSG) progenitors. The dataset includes nearly 100 spectra of about 40 objects, making this the largest sample of SN IIP nebular spectra ever investigated. Quantitative criteria from within the spectra themselves are employed to determine if an observation is truly nebular, and thus should be included in the study. We present the temporal evolution of the fluxes, shapes, and velocities of various emission lines (see, for example, Fig. 1). These measured values are also compared to photometric data in order to search for correlations that can allow us to gain insight into the diversity of RSG progenitors and learn more about the details of the explosion itself.

Jupiter-sized brown dwarfs are found in the solar neighborhood with effective temperature Teff as low as 250 K [1]. Iron, silicates, chlorides and sulfides condense in the atmospheres of the Teff ≈ 2000 K L-type and Teff ≈ 1000 K T-type dwarfs [2]. At the T-/Y-type boundary, Teff ≈ 500 K and atmospheres are clear [3]. The next species to condense are H2O at Teff ≈ 350 K and NH3 at Teff ≈ 200 K [4].

The first stellar generation in galactic globular clusters contained massive low-metallicity stars (Charbonnel et al. 2014). We modelled the evolution of this massive stellar population and found that such stars with masses 100-600 M⊙ evolve into cool RSGs (Szécsi et al. 2015). These RSGs spend not only the core-He-burning phase but even the last few 105 years of the core-H-burning phase on the SG branch. Due to the presence of hot massive stars in the cluster at the same time, we show that the RSG wind is trapped into photoionization confined shells (Mackey et al. 2014). We simulated the shell formation around such RSGs and find them to become gravitationally unstable (Szécsi et al. 2016). We propose a scenario in which these shells are responsible for the formation of the second generation low-mass stars in globular clusters with anomalous surface abundances.

Observations show that emission from the Unidentified Infrared (UIR) bands is strongly suppressed in H II regions. UIR bands are generally attributed to vibrational relaxation of FUV - excited Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules or hydrocarbon nanoparticles containing aromatic domains. If the strongly reduced UIR emission in H II regions is due to the suppression of the carriers, an efficient destruction mechanism is required to explain observations. The aim of this work is to clarify whether UV processing of PAHs and nanoparticles is indeed responsible for the observed lack of infrared emission. We present here our first results on the physical response to photo-processing of the proposed UIR-bands carriers.

Polarimetric astronomical observations on dust clouds and regolithic surfaces require laboratory simulations on samples to provide clues to properties of the scattering media. Similarly, in-situ radar investigations of Solar System bodies require laboratory studies to infer the physical properties of their interiors. Recent developments are illustrated by analyses of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimeko (C-G) remote observations and in-situ studies from Rosetta mission.

I will present a reanalysis of the properties of the red supergiant (RSG) progenitors of several extragalactic core-collapse, Type II-Plateau supernovae, including SN 2012aw, SN 2013ej, SN 2004et, and SN 2008bk. The observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for these stars, from the optical to the infrared, are compared with model SEDs for Galactic RSGs, as well as with the observed SEDs of analogous RSGs in Local Group galaxies. As a result, new estimates of the stellar temperatures and luminosities for the progenitors are obtained, and through comparison with recent massive stellar evolutionary tracks, new inferences are made for the progenitors initial masses. I will place these in the context of the RSG SN progenitor mass spectrum and of the so-called “red supergiant problem.”

Submillimetre observations of the externally irradiated protostar R CrA IRS7B show that this source has dramatically different chemical abundances in comparison with otherwise similar embedded protostars not subject to external irradiation.

As the opening review to the focus meeting “Stellar Behemoths: Red Supergiants across the Local Universe”, I here provide a brief introduction to red supergiants, setting the stage for subsequent contributions. I highlight some recent activity in the field, and identify areas of progress, areas where progress is needed, and how such progress might be achieved.

We have studied oscillation frequencies of two-dimensional uniformly rotating zero-age main sequence stellar models in the delta Scuti mass range. We identified 370 p and g axisymmetric modes for non-rotating models and then traced their evolution as the rotational velocity was increased. For each mass we considered a rotation sequence of ten models, with the largest rotation rate being about 200 km s−1. We constrained the models to have the same surface shape, which can be characterized for uniform rotation by the ratio between the polar and the equatorial radii. We find that scaling relationships exist among the oscillation frequencies calculated for models with the same shape. For p modes, this scaling closely follows the period root-mean-density relation found in spherical stars. The g modes also scale between models of the same shape, with the scaling reflecting the change in properties outside the convective core as the stellar mass increases. These scaling relationships can be particularly useful in finding specific stellar models to match the oscillation frequencies of individual stars.

Traditional laboratory studies on dust-ice systems have proved how the nature of the dust surface significantly affects ice structure and reactivity. Although the surface composition effects have been widely studied recently, no attention has been paid to the dust sizes. We show how dust the grains size and topography, as well as their composition, affects their interaction with light and the morphology of water ice mantles on top of them.