Abstract
Low- and intermediate-mass stars lose significant fractions of their mass during the asymptotic-giant-branch evolution, creating massive circumstellar shells. The deeply enshrouded OH infrared stars are presumably at the end of asymptotic-giant-branch evolution. I report here the discovery of shocked bipolar bubbles expanding supersonically at right angles to a dense dust disk around the red-giant OH infrared star OH231.8+4.2. The relative radial velocity between the northern and southern bubble fronts is over 200 km s-1, and with a total physical extent of 0.42 pc and a known inclination, this gives a dynamical age of about 1,500 yr. Herbig–Haro objects are observed at the front of the bubbles, and are probably formed as instabilities in the bow shocks, where two collimated flows ram into the ambient medium. This new phenomenon represents a brief phase of late stellar evolution, immediately preceding the formation of a planetary nebula.
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Reipurth, B. Shocked bipolar outflow from the evolved star OH231.8 + 4.2 . Nature 325, 787–790 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/325787a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/325787a0
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