Near-infrared polarimetric study of the bipolar nebula IRAS 19312+1950

Abstract

Aims. We have investigated the properties of the central star and dust in the bipolar nebula IRAS 19312+1950, which is an unusual object showing the characteristics of a supergiant, a young stellar object, and an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. Methods. We obtained H-band Polarimetric data of IRAS 19312+1950 using the near-infrared camera (CIAO) on the 8 m Subaru telescope. In order to investigate the physical properties of the central star and the nebula, we performed radiative transfer modeling and compared the model results with the observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs), the radial profiles of the total intensity image, and the fraction of linear polarization map. Results. The total intensity image shows a nearly spherical core with ∼3″ radius, an S-shaped arm extending ∼10″ in the northwest to southeast direction, and an extended lobe towards the southwest. The polarization map shows a centro-symmetric vector alignment in almost the entire nebula and low polarizations along the S-shaped arm. These results suggest that the nebula is accompanied by a central star, and the S-shaped arm has a physically ring-like structure. From our radiative transfer modeling, we estimated the stellar temperature, the bolometric luminosity, and the current mass-loss rate to be 2800 K, 7000 L⊙, and 5.3 × 10-6 M ⊙ yr-1, respectively. Conclusions. Taking into account previous observational results, such as the detection of SiO maser emissions and silicate absorption feature in the 10 μm spectrum, our dust radiative transfer analysis based on our near-infrared imaging polarimetry suggests that (1) the central star of IRAS 19312+1950 is likely to be an oxygen-rich, dust-enshrouded AGB star and (2) most of the circumstellar material originates from other sources (e.g. ambient dark clouds) rather than being a result of mass loss from the central star. © ESO 2007.