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NML Cygni

NML Cygni is a large star.
NML Cygni is located in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.

NML Cygni or V1489 Cygni is a red hypergiant star.[1] It is one of the largest stars known at present. One study says its radius is 1,640 times the Sun's radius (solar radii), but an older study from 2010 says its radius is only 1,183 solar radii.[2] It is one of the brightest supergiant stars.[3] It was discovered in 1965, by Gerry Neugebauer, D.M. Martz and Robert Leighton.[4] The name 'NML' comes from the names of the three discoverers.[5]

NML Cygni's distance from Earth is about 5,250 light-years.[3] This star has dust surrounding it. It has a bean-shaped asymmetric nebula with water vapour.[6] It is a semiregular variable star. This means its brightness changes over 940 days.[7]

This star is a part of the Cygnus OB2 association, which is 1.74 ± 0.2 kpc away. This is one of the nearest massive star groups to the Sun.[7] This group includes some of the most massive and brightest stars known, including the suspected luminous blue variable Cyg OB2 #12. NML Cygni has lots of oxygen.[8] Molecules like H2O, Silicon monoxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, carbon monosulfide, sulfur monoxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide are also in the star.[4]

NML Cygni has two dense outer layers of dust and molecules. The star is also losing mass by slowly throwing gas into space.[4] The dust envelopes are formed by this process.[7]

NML Cygni Media

  • This is an image of the bright red supergiant NML Cygni, as viewed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 9. Note the green circumstellar nebula arc surrounding the star.

  • A near infrared (3.5 micron) light curve for V1489 Cygni, plotted from data published by Strecker (1975)

  • H-alpha light image of Cygnus OB2, the stellar association in which NML Cygni is located

References

  1. ↑ Zhang, B.; Reid, M. J.; Menten, K. M.; Zheng, X. W.; Brunthaler, A. (2012). "The distance and size of the red hypergiant NML Cygni from VLBA and VLA astrometry". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 544 (A42): A42. arXiv:1207.1850. Bibcode:2012A&A...544A..42Z. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201219587. S2CID 55509287.
  2. ↑ De Beck, E.; Decin, L.; De Koter, A.; Justtanont, K.; Verhoelst, T.; Kemper, F.; Menten, K. M. (2010). "Probing the mass-loss history of AGB and red supergiant stars from CO rotational line profiles". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 523: A18. arXiv:1008.1083. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200913771. S2CID 16131273.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Schuster M.T. (2007). Investigating the circumstellar environments of the cool hypergiants. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-549-32782-0.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Marvel, Kevin (1996). "NML Cygni". The circumstellar environment of evolved stars as revealed by studies of circumstellar water masers. Universal-Publishers. pp. 182–212. ISBN 978-1-58112-061-5. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  5. ↑ Hearnshaw J.B. (1996). "New infrared sources and their interpretation". The measurement of starlight: two centuries of astronomical photometry. Cambridge University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-521-40393-1. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  6. ↑ Schuster M.T; Humphreys R.M. & Marengo M. 2006. The circumstellar environments of NML Cygni and the cool hypergiants. The Astronomical Journal 131, 603. [1]
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Schuster M.T. et al 2009. Imaging the cool hypergiant NML Cygni's dusty circumstellar envelope with adaptive optics. Astrophysical Journal 699 (2): 1423. [2]
  8. ↑ "Combined array for research in millimeter-wave astronomy" (PDF). Retrieved August 27, 2012.
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