A High Sensitivity Exploration of the Distribution of Circumstellar Dust in Optical Light based on the Development of a Stellar Coronagraph

• Project/Area Number: 17540221
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Astronomy
• Research Institution: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
• Principal Investigator: IZUMIURA Hideyuki National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Assistant Professor (00211730)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAKADA Yoshikazu The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Science, Professor (80011740) ; HASHIMOTO Osamu National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Gunma Astronomical Observatory, Observation and Outreach Research Group, Specialized Researcher (20221492) ; SHIMIZU Yasuhiro National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Chief Research Engineer (60143517) ; HAYASHI Tadashi National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Toyama Science and Culture Center, Toyama City Observatory, Curator (70373488) ; MITO Hiroyuki The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Science, Technical Assistant (00396805) ; 岡田 隆史 国立天文台, 岡山天体物理観測所, 助教授 (70142255)
• Project Period (FY): 2005 – 2007
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2007)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2007: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000); Fiscal Year 2006: ¥2,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000); Fiscal Year 2005: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
• Keywords: stars / coronagraph / circumstellar / dust shells / scattered light / mass-loss / red giants

Research Abstract

This study aims at detecting and exploring the circumstellar dust shells of bright red giant stars in faint scattered optical light by dust grains with an unprecedented sensitivity. We investigate the time variability and geometry of mass様oss in red giants on the basis of observed dust distribution revealed by the scattered optical light. For this purpose we use existing observing facilities at first hand, while we develop a new coronagraph which will be dedicated to this study. With the coronagraph we will search bright red giants in the optical for their extended dust shells produced by their mass様oss systematically. We intend to depict their dust shells far out into a region beyond 0.1 pc from the central stars as two dimensional images. From the analysis of the structure we learn the history of mass様oss into unprecedented details. We have used Kiso Observatory that belongs to the Institute of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo as our observations with existing facilities. We have detected a circular dust shell with 120" radius of which brightness is about 25^<th> magnitude per square arcseconds in U Hya. We have monitored the brightness of the shell for 4 months but we have not found any significant variability. Furthermore, we have obtained a possible micro structure in the shell. It should be related to a variability or asymmetry of mass様oss, worthy for a further scrutiny. We have also developed a coronagraph equipped with a focal plane mask and a pupil plane mask.. We have installed it to the 115cm reflector at Rikubetsu Space and Earth Science Museum and performed the first observations. As expected, ghost and scattered light in the optics are well suppressed and we can get least affected images, In particular, we are able to detect the dust shell of U Hya in R-band relatively easily, which confirms the effectiveness of R-band in our dust shell survey. We decide to begin with R band for our survey with the coronagraph.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Excavating Mass Loss History in Extended Dust Shell of Evolved Stars : the MLHES Mission Programme with the AKARI Astronomy Satellite (2007)
  • Author(s): Ueta, T., Izumiura, H., Yamamura, I., Hashimoto, O., Matsuura, M., Miyata, T., Nakada, Y., Ita, Y., Matsunaga, N., Tanabe, T., Fukushi, H., Tsuji, T.
  • Journal Title: AIP Conference Proceedings 948 Pages: 365-372
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Journal Article] Detection of an 0.1 pc Dust Shell of the Carbon star U Hydrae in Optical Light (2007)
  • Author(s): Izumiura, H., Nakada, Y., Hashimoto, O., Mito, H., Hayashi, T.
  • Journal Title: ASP Conference Series 378 Pages: 305-306
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Journal Article] Excavating Mass Loss History in Extended Dust Shells of Evolved Stars : the MLHES Mission Programme with the AKARI Astronomy Satellite (2007)
  • Author(s): Ueta, T., Izumiura, H., Yamamura, I., Hashimoto, 0., Matsuura, M., Miyata, T., Nakada, Y., Ita, Y., Matsunaga, N., Tanabe, T., Fukushi, H., Tsuji, T.
  • Journal Title: AIP Conference Proceedings 948 Pages: 365-372
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Journal Article] Detection of an 0.1 pc Dust Shell of the Carbon Star U Hydrae in Optical Light (2007)
  • Author(s): Izumiura, H., Nakada, Y, Hashimoto, 0., Mito, H., Hayashi, T.
  • Journal Title: ASP Conference Series 378 Pages: 305-306
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Journal Article] Detection of an 0.1 pc Dust Shell of the Carbon Star U Hydrae in Optical Light (2007)
  • Author(s): Izumiura, H., Nakada, Y., Hashimoto, O., Mito, H., Hayashi, T.
  • Journal Title: ASP Conference Series 378 Pages: 305-306
• [Journal Article] Excavating Mass Loss History in Extended Dust Shell of Evolved Stars: the MLHES Mission Programme with the AKARI Astronomy Satellite (2007)
  • Author(s): Ueta, T, Izumiura, H., Yamamura, I., Hashimoto, O., Matsuura, M., Miyata, T., Nakada, Y., Ita, Y., Matsunaga, N., Tanabe, T., Fukushi, H., Tsuji, T.
  • Journal Title: AIP Conference Proceedings 948 Pages: 365-372
• [Journal Article] Detached shells as tracers of AGB-ISM bow shocks (2006)
  • Author(s): Wareing, C.J., Zijlstra, A.A, Speck, A.A., Ueta, T, Elitzur, M., Gehrz, R.D., Herwig, F., Izumiura, H., Matsuura, M., Meixner, M., Stencel, R.E., Szczerba,R.
  • Journal Title: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 372
• [Journal Article] Detection of a Far-Infrared Bow-Shock Nebula Around the First MIRIAD Results (2006)
  • Author(s): Ueta, T, Speak, A.K., Stencel, R.E., Herwing, F, Gehrz, R.D., Szczerba, R., Izumiura, H, Zijlstra, A.A., Latter, W.B., Matsuura, M., Meixner, M., Steffen, M., Elitzur,M.
  • Journal Title: The Astrophsical Journal Letters 648
• [Journal Article] An East-Asian Extra-Solar Planet Search Network (2005)
  • Author(s): Izumiura, H.
  • Journal Title: Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society 38・2 Pages: 81-84
• [Presentation] 「あかり」で探るAGB星の質量放出履歴 (2008)
  • Author(s): 泉浦秀行、松浦美香子、板由房、山村一誠、植田稔也、中田好一、三戸洋之、田辺俊彦、福士比奈子、松永典之、橋本修
  • Organizer: 日本天文学会2008年春季年会
  • Place of Presentation: 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター
  • Year and Date: 2008-03-25
• [Presentation] 「あかり」で探るAGB星の質量放出履歴 (2008)
  • Author(s): 泉浦秀行, 松浦美香子, 板由房, 山村-誠, 植田稔也, 中田好一, 三戸洋之, 田辺俊彦, 福士比奈子, 松永典之, 橋本修
  • Organizer: 日本天文学会
  • Place of Presentation: 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] 赤外線天文衛星「あかり」による球状星団観測II (2008)
  • Author(s): 三戸洋之, 松永典之, 中田好一, 福士比奈子, 田辺俊彦, 板由房, 泉浦秀行, 松浦美香子, 植田稔也, 山村一誠
  • Organizer: 日本天文学会
  • Place of Presentation: 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] 「あかり」で探る球状星団内星間ダスト (2008)
  • Author(s): 松永典之, 三戸洋之, 中田好-, 福士比奈子, 田辺俊彦, 板由房, 泉浦秀行, 松浦美香子, 植田稔也, 山村一誠
  • Organizer: 日本天文学会
  • Place of Presentation: 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] Mass-loss history of AGB stars explored by "AKARI" (2008)
  • Author(s): Hideyuki Izumiura, Mikako Matsuura, Yoshifusa Ita, Issei Yamamura, Toshiya Ueta, Yoshikazu Nakada, Hiroyuki Mito, Toshihiko Tanabe, Hinako Fukushi, Noriyuki Matsunaga, Osamu Hashimoto
  • Organizer: Annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan
  • Place of Presentation: National Olympics Memorial Youth Center
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Presentation] Observation of globular clusters with the infrared astronomy satellite AKARIII (2008)
  • Author(s): Hiroyuki Mito, Noriyuki Matsunaga, Yoshikazu Nakada, Hinako Fukushi, Toshihiko Tanabe, Yoshifusa Ita, Hideyuki Izumiura, Mikako Matsuuura, Toshiya Ueta, Issei Yamamura
  • Organizer: Annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan
  • Place of Presentation: National Olympics Memorial Youth Center
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Presentation] Intracluster dust in globular clusters probed by "AKARI" (2008)
  • Author(s): Noriyuki Matsunaga, Hiroyuki Mito, Yoshikazu Nakada, Hinako Fukushi, Toshihiko Tanabe, Yoshifusa Ita, Hideyuki Izumiura, Mikako Matsuura, Toshiya Ueta, Issei Yamamura
  • Organizer: Annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan
  • Place of Presentation: National Olympics Memorial Youth Center
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Presentation] 高感度/高分散分光スペクトルに基づくハロ-惑星状星雲の元素組成解析 (2007)
  • Author(s): 大塚雅昭, 田實晃人, 泉浦秀行, Siek Hyung
  • Organizer: 日本天文学会
  • Place of Presentation: 岐阜大学
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] An abundance analysis of halo planetary nebulae based on high sensitivity and high dispersion spectra (2007)
  • Author(s): Masaaki Otsuka, Akito Tajitsu, Hideyuki Izumiura, Siek Hyung
  • Organizer: Annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan
  • Place of Presentation: Gifu University
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より