What next for the Likely Pre-Supernova, HD 179821?

Abstract

We have used the Owens Valley Radio Observatory Millimeter Array to obtain a map of the J = (1-0) CO emission from the circumstellar shell around HD 179821, a highly evolved G-type star which will probably explode as a supernova in the next 100,000 yr. Very approximately, the gas presents as a circular ring with azimuthal variations in the CO brightness by about a factor of 2. Until about 1600 years ago, the star was a red hypergiant losing about 0.0003 M(Sun)/yr at an average outflow speed of 32 km/s. We propose that when HD 179821 explodes as a supernova, it may resemble Kepler's supernova remnant and thus some of the anisotropies in supernova remnants may be intrinsic. If the factors which cause the anisotropic mass loss in HD 179821 persist to the moment when the star explodes as a supernova, the newly-born pulsar may receive a momentum "kick" leading to a space motion near 700 km/s. Independent of the angular asymmetries, the radially detached shell around HD 179821 may be representative of environments which produce dust echoes from gamma-ray bursts.