Towards the ends of their lives, Red Super-giant (RSG) stars experience prodigious mass loss at rates of up to 10−4 M⊙yr−1, caused by intense superwinds. Despite the ubiquity and importance of this process, no clear physical picture has emerged for how the winds are launched. There exists strong evidence that luminous O-type RSG star µ Cephei (M2 Ia) exhibits a non-spherically symmetric and episodic wind, resulting in an anisotropic and ‘clumpy’ circumstellar envelope consisting of iron and aluminium containing silicates. However, no current study has resolved the circumstellar dust within the dust formation region, and so much critical physics remains unresolved. Here we propose to use a unique set of instrumentation to produce the first unified model for both the circumstellar dust geometry within the dust formation region, and the composition of dust, for RSG µ Cephei. SCExAO + VAMPIRES + Fast-PDI are one of the only instruments suites in the world that can achieve the extreme levels of resolution needed to image circumstellar dust right down to the stellar surface. By directly examining the mass-loss process at its source (the inner circumstellar environment), these powerful observations will yield critical insight into the mystery of the mass-loss process.
This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.