Paper: astro-ph/0510177
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 14:39:51 GMT (802kb)

Title: Water Vapor on Betelgeuse as Revealed by TEXES High-Resolution 12
Micron Spectra

Authors: N. Ryde, G. M. Harper, M. J. Richter, T. K. Greathouse, J. H. Lacy

Categories: astro-ph

Comments: Accepted by ApJ
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The outer atmosphere of the M supergiant Betelgeuse is puzzling. Published
observations of different kinds have shed light on different aspects of the
atmosphere, but no unified picture has emerged. They have shown, for example,
evidence of a water envelope (MOLsphere) that in some studies is found to be
optically thick in the mid-infrared. In this paper, we present high-resolution,
mid-infrared spectra of Betelgeuse recorded with the TEXES spectrograph. The
spectra clearly show absorption features of water vapor and OH. We show that a
spectrum based on a spherical, hydrostatic model photosphere with T_eff = 3600
K, an effective temperature often assumed for Betelgeuse, fails to model the
observed lines. Furthermore, we show that published MOLspheres scenarios are
unable to explain our data. However, we are able to model the observed spectrum
reasonably well by adopting a cooler outer photospheric structure corresponding
to T_mod = 3250 K. The success of this model may indicate the observed
mid-infrared lines are formed in cool photospheric surface regions. Given the
uncertainties of the temperature structure and the likely presence of
inhomogeneities, we cannot rule out the possibility that our spectrum could be
mostly photospheric, albeit non-classical. Our data put new, strong constraints
on atmospheric models of Betelgeuse and we conclude that continued
investigation requires consideration of non-classical model photospheres as
well as possible effects of a MOLsphere. We show that the mid-infrared
water-vapor features have great diagnostic value for the environments of K and
M (super-) giant star atmospheres.

\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510177 , 802kb)