The Mira Imaging Project: Near-IR VLBA, and Thermal-IR (Abstract)

Volume 33 number 1 (2005)

Wesley A. Traub

Abstract

(Abstract only) Interferometer observations in three wavelength regions can tell us about out flow from Mira stars as ejected material moves farther and farther from the star, and changes its state. In the near-infrared we see the photosphere, in radio we see SiO masers in a surrounding shell, and in the thermal-infrared we see dust condensations in an even-larger shell. Three interferometers, IOTA, VLA, and ISI, can now give us imaging information on Miras, using closure-phase methods. The Mira Imaging Project is a cooperative observational program which promises to combine the results from these interferometers to give us a new picture of how mass is ejected from Mira stars.