A large shell around the hypergiant VY Canis Majoris

Abstract

We report the detection of a remarkable shell around the red hypergiant VY CMa using data from the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx). The shell, which in projection on the plane of the sky appears as a ring, is almost circular in appearance. It has an external diameter of ∼14' to 15', and is seen most clearly in the SPHEREx 7827A spectro-photometric image. Filaments, radially aligned with VY CMa, are seen to cut across the shell in several places. We discuss the possibility that the shell is matter swept out from the neighboring star forming region Sh 2-310, by the wind from VY CMa. Resonant atomic scattering, a light echo, or Extended Red Emission are explored as the source of the observed SPHEREx emission. However, no interpretation is without difficulty and further observations are most desirable.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{banerjee2026large,
  title = {{A large shell around the hypergiant VY Canis Majoris}},
  author = {D. P. K. Banerjee and V. Joshi and A. Evans and A. A. Djupvik and Ken Hall and F. -J. Hambsch and S. Sharma and G. Rangwal and A. Devaraj and T. R. Geballe and L. Izzo and T. Liimets and T. Schaeffer and S. Starrfield and C. E. Woodward},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.18895},
  eprint = {2609.18895},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18895},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - A large shell around the hypergiant VY Canis Majoris
AU  - D. P. K. Banerjee
AU  - V. Joshi
AU  - A. Evans
AU  - A. A. Djupvik
AU  - Ken Hall
AU  - F. -J. Hambsch
AU  - S. Sharma
AU  - G. Rangwal
AU  - A. Devaraj
AU  - T. R. Geballe
AU  - L. Izzo
AU  - T. Liimets
AU  - T. Schaeffer
AU  - S. Starrfield
AU  - C. E. Woodward
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/22
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.18895
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18895
AB  - We report the detection of a remarkable shell around the red hypergiant VY CMa using data from the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx). The shell, which in projection on the plane of the sky appears as a ring, is almost circular in appearance. It has an external diameter of ∼14' to 15', and is seen most clearly in the SPHEREx 7827A spectro-photometric image. Filaments, radially aligned with VY CMa, are seen to cut across the shell in several places. We discuss the possibility that the shell is matter swept out from the neighboring star forming region Sh 2-310, by the wind from VY CMa. Resonant atomic scattering, a light echo, or Extended Red Emission are explored as the source of the observed SPHEREx emission. However, no interpretation is without difficulty and further observations are most desirable.
ER  -

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