First Images of the Molecular Gas around a Born-again Star Revealed by ALMA
Abstract :
Born-again stars allow probing stellar evolution in human timescales and provide the most promising path for the formation of hydrogen-deficient post-asymptotic giant branch objects, but their cold and molecular components remain poorly explored. Here we present ALMA observations of V 605 Aql that unveil for the first time the spatio-kinematic distribution of the molecular material associated with a born-again star. Both the continuum and molecular line emission exhibit a clumpy ring-like structure with a total extent of ≍1″ in diameter. The bulk of the molecular emission is interpreted as being produced in a radially expanding disk-like structure with an expansion velocity vexpvexp vexp ~ 90 km s-1 and an inclination i ≍ 60° with respect to the line of sight. The observations also reveal a compact high-velocity component, vexpvexp vexp ~ 280 km s-1, that is aligned perpendicularly to the expanding disk. This component is interpreted as a bipolar outflow with a kinematical age τ ≲ 20 yr, which could either be material that is currently being ejected from V 605 Aql, or is being dragged from the inner parts of the disk by a stellar wind. The dust mass of the disk is in the range M dust ~ 0.2-8 × 10-3 M ⊙, depending on the dust absorption coefficient. The mass of the CO is M CO ≍ 1.1 × 10-5 M ⊙, which is more than three orders of magnitude larger than the mass of the other detected molecules. We estimate a 12C/13C ratio of 5.6 ± 0.6, which is consistent with the single stellar evolution scenario in which the star experienced a very late thermal pulse instead of a nova-like event as previously suggested.
Publication : The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 925, Issue 1, id.L4, 8 pp.
DOI : 10.3847/2041-8213/ac4a5b
Bibcode : 2022ApJ...925L...4T
Keywords : 237; 1607; 911; Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics