Smoke Signals from IRC +10216. I. Milliarcsecond Proper Motions of the Dust

The results of a seven epoch interferometric imaging study, at wavelengths in the near-infrared K band, of the carbon star IRC+10216 are presented. The use of non- and partially redundant aperture masking techniques on the 10 m Keck I telescope has allowed us to produce images of the innermost regions of the circumstellar dust envelope with unprecedented detail. With roughly twice the resolving power of previous work, the complex asymmetric structures reported within the central 05 (~20 R*) have been imaged at the size scale of the stellar disk itself (~50 mas). A prominent dark lane at a position angle of approximately 120° is suggested to be an optically thick disk or torus of dust which could help to explain IRC +10216's well-known bipolarity at a position angle of ~20°. Observations spanning more than a pulsational cycle (~638 days) have revealed significant temporal evolution of the nebula, including the outward motion of bright knots and clumps. Registering these displacements against the compact bright core, which we tentatively identify as marking the location of the star, has allowed us to determine the apparent angular velocity at a number of points. The magnitudes of the proper motions were found to be in agreement with current estimates of the stellar distance and radial velocity. Higher outflow speeds were found for features with greater separation from the core. This is consistent with acceleration taking place over the region sampled by the measurements; however, alternate interpretations are also presented. Although a number of changes of morphology were found, none were clearly interpreted as the condensation of new dust over the pulsation cycle. Unfortunately, ambiguities associated with the true three-dimensional nature of the nebula weaken a number of our quantitative and qualitative conclusions.