Abstract
All main sequence stars lose mass via stellar winds. The winds of cool stars like the sun are driven by gas pressure gradient. However, the winds of hot massive stars which tend to be luminous are driven by the star radiation pressure. In this talk, I describe the nature of such radiative driving and show that the continuum and line opacities in the wind determine how large the stellar atmosphere may appear in an interferometer. Currently, interferometers can detect only relatively large scale structures. I will describe how these structures are induced by rotation, pulsations, magnetic fields or wind-wind interactions.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 44-47 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica: Serie de Conferencias |
| Volume | 38 |
| State | Published - Dec 1 2010 |
| Event | Workshop on Interferometric View on Hot Stars - Vina del Mar, Chile Duration: Mar 2 2009 → Mar 6 2009 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Space and Planetary Science
- Astronomy and Astrophysics