Central stars of mid-infrared nebulae discovered with Spitzer and WISE

TL;DR

This study utilizes Spitzer and WISE infrared data to identify and analyze central stars of mid-infrared nebulae, revealing numerous massive stars, including candidate luminous blue variables, and providing new spectroscopic insights.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive census of Galactic LBVs identified via mid-IR nebulae and reports new spectroscopic observations of their central stars.

Findings

Discovery of dozens of massive stars at various evolutionary stages.

Identification of numerous candidate luminous blue variables.

New spectroscopic data on central stars of mid-IR nebulae.

Abstract

Searches for compact mid-IR nebulae with the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), accompanied by spectroscopic observations of central stars of these nebulae led to the discovery of many dozens of massive stars at different evolutionary stages, of which the most numerous are candidate luminous blue variables (LBVs). In this paper, we give a census of candidate and confirmed Galactic LBVs revealed with Spitzer and WISE, and present some new results of spectroscopic observations of central stars of mid-IR nebulae.