VY CMa ALMA NaCl images

The specific physical and chemical circumstances that lead to the onset of the stellar wind for cool luminous stars are not yet understood. Complex geometrical morphologies in the circumstellar envelopes prove that various dynamical and chemical processes are interlocked and that their relative contributions are not easy to disentangle.

We aim to study the inner-wind structure (R<250R*) of the well-known red supergiant VY CMa, the archetype for the class of luminous red supergiant stars experiencing high mass loss. Specifically, the objective is to unravel the density structure in the inner envelope and to examine the chemical interaction between gas and dust species. We analyse high spatial resolution (~0.24"x0.13") ALMA Science Verification (SV) data in band 7, in which four thermal emission lines of gaseous sodium chloride (NaCl) are present at high signal-to-noise ratio.