Review and latest news from the VEGA/CHARA facility
The VEGA instrument located at the focus of the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) array in California is a collaborating project between the Lagrange laboratory in Nice, where it has been developed (Mourard et al. 2009, 2011), the IPAG (Grenoble) and CRAL (Lyon) laboratories, and the CHARA group at Mount Wilson Observatory. The […]
Stars with the B[e] phenomenon seen by long baseline interferometry
Thanks to the high spatial resolution provided by long baseline interferometry, it is possible to understand the complex circumstellar geometry around stars with the B[e] phenomenon. These stars are composed by objects in different evolutionary stages, like high- and low-mass evolved stars, intermediate-mass pre-main sequence stars and symbiotic objects. However, up to now more than […]
B[e] stars at the highest angular resolution: the case of HD87643
New results on the B[e] star HD87643 are presented here. They were <P />obtained with a wide range of different instruments, from wide-field <P />imaging with the WFI camera, high resolution spectroscopy with the <P />FEROS instrument, high angular resolution imaging with the adaptive <P />optics camera NACO, to the highest angular resolution available with […]
The complex environment of the fast rotating star Achernar
We report recent observations of Achernar ($alpha$~Eri) and its circumstellar environment obtained with interferometric and single-telescope techniques. We also briefly summarize the SIMECA modeling of the near-infrared polar envelope detected by interferometry around this star. From these results, the close environment of Achernar appears to be shaped at least by the fast stellar wind pushed […]
In the intimacy of stars with AMBER at the VLTI
The AMBER instrument installed at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) combines the beams from three telescopes to produce spectrally dispersed interference fringes with milli-arcsecond angular scales in the near infrared. Three years after installation, first scientific observations have been carried out mostly during the Science Demonstration Time and the Guaranteed Time. The first science has […]
Disk and wind evolution of the fast rotator Achernar.
We use spectral energy distributions (SEDs), Hα line profiles, and visibilities available in the literature to study Achernar’s envelope geometry and to propose a possible scenario for its circumstellar disk formation and dissipation. We use the SIMECA code to investigate possible geometries by comparing our synthetic results with spectroscopic and high angular resolution data from […]
New results from the VLTI on massive hot stars: First direct detection of a Keplerian disk around α Arae
We use the VLTI/AMBER instrument operating in the K band which combine a high angular resolution with a medium spectral resolution to study the kinematics of the inner part of α Arae’s disk and try to infer its rotation law. We obtain for the first time the direct evidence that the disk is in keplerian […]