Water Vapor on Betelgeuse as Revealed by TEXES High-Resolution 12 μm Spectra

The outer atmosphere of the M supergiant Betelgeuse is puzzling. Published observations of different kinds have shed light on different aspects of the atmosphere, but no unified picture has emerged. They have shown, for example, evidence of a water envelope (MOLsphere) that in some studies is found to be optically thick in the mid-infrared. In this paper, we present high-resolution, mid-infrared spectra of Betelgeuse recorded with the TEXES spectrograph. The spectra clearly show absorption features of water vapor and OH. We show that a spectrum based on a spherical, hydrostatic model photosphere with Teff = 3600 K, an effective temperature often assumed for Betelgeuse, fails to model the observed lines. Furthermore, we show that published MOLsphere scenarios are unable to explain our data. However, we are able to model the observed spectrum reasonably well by adopting a cooler outer photospheric structure corresponding to Tmod = 3250 K. The success of this model may indicate that the observed mid-infrared lines are formed in cool photospheric surface regions. Given the uncertainties of the temperature structure and the likely presence of inhomogeneities, we cannot rule out the possibility that our spectrum could be mostly photospheric, albeit nonclassical. Our data put new, strong constraints on atmospheric models of Betelgeuse, and we conclude that continued investigation requires consideration of nonclassical model photospheres, as well as possible effects of a MOLsphere. We show that the mid-infrared water vapor features have great diagnostic value for the environments of K and M (super)giant star atmospheres.

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