History of two mass loss processes in VY CMa.

Red Supergiant stars (RSGs) are known to eject large amounts of material during this evolutionary phase. However, the processes powering the mass ejection in low- and intermediate-mass stars do not work for RSGs and the mechanism that drives the ejection remains unknown. Different mechanisms have been proposed as responsible for this mass ejection including Alfvén waves, large convective cells, and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) disturbances at the photosphere, but so far little is known about the actual processes taking place in these objects.

Atmospheric molecular blobs shape up circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars.

During their thermally pulsing phase, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars eject material that forms extended dusty envelopes. Visible polarimetric imaging found clumpy dust clouds within two stellar radii of several oxygen-rich stars. Inhomogeneous molecular gas has also been observed in multiple emission lines within several stellar radii of different oxygen-rich stars, including W Hya and Mira.

Detection of infrared fluorescence of carbon dioxide in R Leonis with SOFIA/EXES.

We report on the detection of hot CO in the O-rich AGB star R Leo based on high spectral resolution observations in the range 12.8 - 14.3 m carried out with the Echelon-cross-Echelle Spectrograph (EXES) mounted on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

Detection of vibrationally excited HCN and HCN in IRC+10216 .

Observations of IRC +10216 with the Yebes 40m telescope between 31 and 50 GHz have revealed more than 150 unidentified lines. Some of them can be grouped into a new series of 26 doublets, harmonically related with integer quantum numbers ranging from =54 to 80. The separation of the doublets increases systematically with , i.

Discovery of two new magnesium-bearing species in IRC+10216: MgCN and MgCH.

We report on the detection of two series of harmonically related doublets in IRC +10216. From the observed frequencies, the rotational constant of the first series is = 1380.888 MHz and that of the second series is = 1381.