Tentative Detection of Circumstellar CO2 from the AGB Star R Crateris
Ryde, N.; Eriksson, K.; Gustafsson, B.; Lindqvist, M.; Olofsson, H.
Sweden
Abstract
We report on and discuss the detection of an emission feature at 14.98 µm from the oxygen-rich, semi-regularly pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch star R Crateris, a feature which we suggest to be due to the <Stack> 0 1 </Stack> Q-branch of circumstellar CO2. We also suggest a reasonable excitation mechanism, which could explain the height, the width and the asymmetry of the feature.