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The Red Supergiants: Crucial Signposts for the Fate of Massive...
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The Red Supergiants: Crucial Signposts for the Fate of Massive Stars

A special issue of Galaxies (ISSN 2075-4434).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2025) | Viewed by 1146

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Roberta M. Humphreys

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Interests: massive stars; stellar populations; galaxtic structure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The majority of massive stars, typically 9 to about 40 solar masses, will pass through the red supergiant stage. Red supergiants have long been considered the end product of stellar evolution for stars in this mass range with a terminal explosion as a Type II supernova. They were often dismissed as generally well-understood, in comparison with the more massive hot stars and their strong stellar winds. But studies of SN progenitors in other galaxies have now brought into question the terminal state of the most luminous red supergiants. The final fate of red supergiants may depend on several factors. The most prominent may be their mass loss histories, but the mass loss mechanism for these largest stars is still debated. The recent “great dimming” of Betelgeuse demonstrated the significance of gaseous outflows from active regions on its surface. Similar phenomena are observed in red hypergiants, such as VY CMa with its history of episodic high mass loss events. Thus, the evolutionary state and possible final fate of many red supergiants is now a topic of current research. This volume will focus on recent research on red supergiants, their properties, mass loss rates, mass loss mechanisms, the role of surface activity, and questions about their evolutionary state.

References: This volume will supplement recent publications on massive stars in general, the recent outflow from Betelgeuse and the episodic mass loss records of stars like VY CMa, RW Cep, and others, and some recent publications in the MDPI Galaxies series, including the structure and evolution of stars, planetary nebulae, B-type stars, and AGB stars.

Prof. Dr. Roberta M. Humphreys
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • red supergiants
  • mass loss
  • hypergiants
  • stellar winds
  • outflows
  • magnetic fields
  • supernovae

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Review

17 pages, 7779 KiB  
Review
Betelgeuse, the Prototypical Red Supergiant
by Andrea K. Dupree and Miguel Montargès
Galaxies 2025, 13(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies13030050 - 24 Apr 2025
Viewed by 135
Abstract
The behavior of the bright red supergiant, Betelgeuse, is described with results principally from the past 6 years. The review includes imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy to record the Great Dimming of 2019–2020. This event was followed by a slow ongoing recovery from the [...] Read more.
The behavior of the bright red supergiant, Betelgeuse, is described with results principally from the past 6 years. The review includes imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy to record the Great Dimming of 2019–2020. This event was followed by a slow ongoing recovery from the massive surface mass ejection after which the stellar characteristics changed. Theoretical simulations address the cause of this episodic mass ejection and the optical Dimming. Recent publications evaluating the perplexing 2100 day periodicity in the star’s brightness and radial velocity provide evidence that Betelgeuse may harbor a companion object. Current attempts at direct detection of this companion are discussed. Betelgeuse provides a well-studied and meaningful example for supergiant stars in our Galaxy and others. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Red Supergiants: Crucial Signposts for the Fate of Massive Stars)
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16 pages, 1546 KiB  
Review
Red and Yellow Hypergiants
by Terry Jones
Galaxies 2025, 13(2), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies13020043 - 18 Apr 2025
Viewed by 99
Abstract
The red and yellow hypergiants are a rare and important phase in the evolution of the most massive stars that can reach the cool part of the HR Diagram. The hypergiant phase is commonly characterized by high, often episodic mass-loss rates and significant [...] Read more.
The red and yellow hypergiants are a rare and important phase in the evolution of the most massive stars that can reach the cool part of the HR Diagram. The hypergiant phase is commonly characterized by high, often episodic mass-loss rates and significant changes in spectral type, probably due to the formation of a pseudo photopsphere during a high mass-loss episode. Many of the yellow hypergiants are the immediate successors to the most luminous red supergiants, and often show evidence in their dusty, circumstellar envelopes from past red supergiant activity. In this paper we review the yellow and red hypergiants with an emphasis on how they differ from more normal red supergiants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Red Supergiants: Crucial Signposts for the Fate of Massive Stars)
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24 pages, 1031 KiB  
Review
Red Supergiants as Supernova Progenitors
by Schuyler D. Van Dyk
Galaxies 2025, 13(2), 33; https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies13020033 - 2 Apr 2025
Viewed by 306
Abstract
The inevitable fate of massive stars in the initial mass range of ≈8–30M⊙ in the red supergiant (RSG) phase is a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion, although some stars may collapse directly to a black hole. We know that this is [...] Read more.
The inevitable fate of massive stars in the initial mass range of ≈8–30M⊙ in the red supergiant (RSG) phase is a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion, although some stars may collapse directly to a black hole. We know that this is the case, since RSGs have been directly identified and characterized for a number of supernovae (SNe) in pre-explosion archival optical and infrared images. RSGs likely all have some amount of circumstellar matter (CSM), through nominal mass loss, although evidence exists that some RSGs must experience enhanced mass loss during their lifetimes. The SNe from RSGs are hydrogen-rich Type II-Plateau (II-P), and SNe II-P at the low end of the luminosity range tend to arise from low-luminosity RSGs. The typical spectral energy distribution (SED) for such RSGs can generally be fit with a cool photospheric model, whereas the more luminous RSG progenitors of more luminous SNe II-P tend to require a greater quantity of dust in their CSM to account for their SEDs. The SN II-P progenitor luminosity range is log(Lbol/L⊙)∼4.0–5.2. The fact RSGs are known up to log(Lbol/L⊙)∼5.7 leads to the so-called “RSG problem”, which may, in the end, be a result of small number of available statistics to date. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Red Supergiants: Crucial Signposts for the Fate of Massive Stars)
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12 pages, 1218 KiB  
Review
Red Supergiants—The Other Side of the H-R Diagram
by Roberta M. Humphreys
Galaxies 2025, 13(2), 25; https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies13020025 - 20 Mar 2025
Viewed by 288
Abstract
Red supergiants are the largest stars known with some of the highest mass loss rates observed. They are the final stage in the evolution of the majority of massive stars. The unexpected discovery of high mass loss episodes in many red supergiants have [...] Read more.
Red supergiants are the largest stars known with some of the highest mass loss rates observed. They are the final stage in the evolution of the majority of massive stars. The unexpected discovery of high mass loss episodes in many red supergiants have posed questions about the role of mass loss on their final stages. The papers in this volume are timely reviews of our current understanding of this often surprising population of massive stars. This introductory paper is a brief summary of their observed properties and a historical perspective on some of the current problems on mass loss, their circumstellar environments, and their evolutionary state. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Red Supergiants: Crucial Signposts for the Fate of Massive Stars)
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