de Wit et al. 2024: Investigating episodic mass loss in evolved massive stars: II. Physical properties of red supergiants at subsolar metallicity

S. de Wit, A.Z. Bonanos, K. Antoniadis, E. Zapartas, A. Ruiz, N. Britavskiy, E. Christodoulou, K. De, G. Maravelias, G. Munoz-Sanchez, A. Tsopela Mass loss during the red supergiant (RSG) phase plays a crucial role in the evolution of an intermediate massive star, however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. We …

Antoniadis et al. 2024: Establishing a mass-loss rate relation for red supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud

K. Antoniadis, A.Z. Bonanos, S. de Wit, E. Zapartas, G. Munoz-Sanchez, G. Maravelias High mass-loss rates of red supergiants (RSGs) drastically affect their evolution and final fate, yet their mass-loss mechanism remains poorly understood. Various empirical prescriptions scaled with luminosity have been derived in the literature, yielding results with a …

Observing time granted in both ESO/VLT and GTC

Our successful record of observing proposal continues also in 2024! We managed to obtain highly competitive observing time in two of the largest facilities in the world. We are going to use the FORS2 instrument at 8.2m ESO/VLT, as well as OSIRIS at 10.4m GTC. The granted time is ~17.5 …

ASSESS meets Alex de Koter, Emily Levesque, and Henry Lamers

As we are actively working on a series of forthcoming papers, we are meticulously refining the final stages of data analysis and interpretation. Especially when encountering new and exciting results we must be careful to not overlook any potential issues. While our expertise in Red Supergiants is well-established, seeking additional …

Bonanos et al. 2023: Investigating episodic mass loss in evolved massive stars: I. Spectroscopy of dusty massive stars in ten southern galaxies

Investigating episodic mass loss in evolved massive stars: I. Spectroscopy of dusty massive stars in ten southern galaxies A.Z. Bonanos, F. Tramper, S. de Wit, E. Christodoulou, G. Munoz-Sanchez, K. Antoniadis, S. Athanasiou, G. Maravelias, M. Yang, E. Zapartas The ASSESS project aims to determine the role of episodic mass-loss …

Observing from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile

Gonzalo Munoz-Sanchez and Evangelia Christodoulou traveled this November to Chile, and more specifically to the ESO’s Very Large Telescope facility in Paranal. The purpose of their trip was to get the data for a project that was awarded ~1.5 nights at the very competitive FORS2 instrument. The goal was to …

Bostroem et al. 2023: Early Spectroscopy and Dense Circumstellar Medium Interaction in SN 2023ixf

Early Spectroscopy and Dense Circumstellar Medium Interaction in SN 2023ixf K. Azalee Bostroem, Jeniveve Pearson, Manisha Shrestha, David J. Sand, Stefano Valenti, Saurabh W. Jha, Jennifer E. Andrews, Nathan Smith, Giacomo Terreran, Elizabeth Green, Yize Dong, Michael Lundquist, Joshua Haislip, Emily T. Hoang, Griffin Hosseinzadeh, Daryl Janzen, Jacob E. Jencson, …

Xing et al. 2023: From ZAMS to Merger: Detailed Binary Evolution Models of Coalescing Neutron Star-Black Hole Systems at Solar Metallicity

From ZAMS to Merger: Detailed Binary Evolution Models of Coalescing Neutron Star-Black Hole Systems at Solar Metallicity Zepei Xing, Simone S. Bavera, Tassos Fragos, Matthias U. Kruckow, Jaim Román-Garza, Jeff J. Andrews, Aaron Dotter, Konstantinos Kovlakas, Devina Misra, Philipp M. Srivastava, Kyle A. Rocha, Meng Sun, Emmanouil Zapartas Neutron star …

Siegel et al. 2023: Investigating the Lower Mass Gap with Low-mass X-Ray Binary Population Synthesis

Investigating the Lower Mass Gap with Low-mass X-Ray Binary Population Synthesis Jared C. Siegel, Ilia Kiato, Vicky Kalogera, Christopher P. L. Berry, Thomas J. Maccarone, Katelyn Breivik, Jeff J. Andrews, Simone S. Bavera, Aaron Dotter, Tassos Fragos, Konstantinos Kovlakas, Devina Misra, Kyle A. Rocha, Philipp M. Srivastava, Meng Sun, Zepei …

Bonanos et al. 2023: Introducing the ASSESS project: Episodic Mass Loss in Evolved Massive Stars – Key to Understanding the Explosive Early Universe

Introducing the ASSESS project: Episodic Mass Loss in Evolved Massive Stars – Key to Understanding the Explosive Early Universe A.Z. Bonanos, G. Maravelias, M. Yang, F. Tramper, S. de Wit, E. Zapartas, K. Antoniadis, E. Christodoulou, G. Munoz-Sanchez Episodic mass loss is not understood theoretically, neither accounted for in state-of-the-art …