De Laverny, Patrick

Contact Email: laverny@obs-nice.fr
Institute: Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, Nice, France
First Coauthor: Nicolas Mauron
Institute: Universite de Montpellier II, France
Second Coauthor: Bruno Lopez
Institute: Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, Nice, France
Subject Area: Stellar Atmospheres, Circumstellar Material
Waveband: Optical
Technique: Imaging (Direct)
Presentation: Poster Display
Title: VLT/FORS1 observations of the dusty envelope of IRC+10216 illuminated by the galactic radiation field
Abstract: The shell-like dusty envelope of IRC+10216 has been observed in several bands with the VLT/FORS1 instrument. The collected deep and high resolution images have allowed us to characterize for the first time both the central and the most external (up to  3 arcmin) regions of the envelope. An accurate mapping of the shells has been deduced from these observations and severe constraints on the formation of these dusty shells have been derived. From the observed colors of the envelope, we have also derived strong constraints regarding the galactic radiation field illuminating IRC+10216 and its grain properties by solving the radiative transfer in the dust with a Monte-Carlo technique.