Herschel-PACS observations of Nebulae Ejected by Massive Stars
Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Belgium
Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Belgium, and FRS-FNRS, Belgium
Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Belgium
Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, Belgium, et
FRS-FNRS, Belgium
Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Abstract
The study of the nebulae ejected from Luminous Blue Variables and the circumstellar bubbles around Wolf-Rayet stars, which radiate strongly in the infrared due to the heating of dust, is crucial for the understanding of the massive stars evolution. With Herschel we are able to observe these objects in the far-infrared region. In the context of the Mass-loss from Evolved StarS guaranteed time key program, we obtained imaging and spectroscopic observations of nebulae associated with Luminous Blue Variable and Wolf-Rayet stars using PACS, one of the three instruments on-board Herschel. A description of these observations, data analysis and preliminary results are presented.