AS 314: A Massive Dusty Hypergiant or a Low-Mass Post-Asymptotic Giant Branch Object?
Aigerim Bakhytkyzy,
Anatoly S. Miroshnichenko,
Valentina G. Klochkova,
Vladimir E. Panchuk,
Sergey V. Zharikov,
Laurent Mahy,
Hans Van Winckel,
Aldiyar T. Agishev,
Serik A. Khokhlov
Affiliations
Aigerim Bakhytkyzy
Faculty of Physics and Technology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave., 71, Almaty 050040, Kazakhstan
Anatoly S. Miroshnichenko
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina—Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27402, USA
Valentina G. Klochkova
Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnyj Arkhyz, Zelenchukskiy Region, Karachai-Cherkessian Republic 369167, Russia
Vladimir E. Panchuk
Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhnyj Arkhyz, Zelenchukskiy Region, Karachai-Cherkessian Republic 369167, Russia
Sergey V. Zharikov
Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, AP 106, Ensenada 22800, BC, Mexico
Laurent Mahy
Royal Astronomical Observatory Belgium, Av. Circulaire 3, 1180 Uccle, Belgium
Hans Van Winckel
Instituut Voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D Bus 2401, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Aldiyar T. Agishev
Faculty of Physics and Technology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave., 71, Almaty 050040, Kazakhstan
Serik A. Khokhlov
Faculty of Physics and Technology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave., 71, Almaty 050040, Kazakhstan
AS 314 (V452 Sct) is a poorly studied early-type emission-line star, which exhibits an infrared excess at wavelengths longer than 10 μm. Its earlier studies have been limited to small amounts of observational data and led to controversial conclusions about its fundamental parameters and evolutionary status. Comparison of high-resolution spectra of AS 314 taken over 20 years ago with those of Luminous Blue Variables and other high-luminosity objects suggested its observed properties can be explained by a strong stellar wind from a distant (D∼10 kpc) massive star, possibly in a binary system. However, a recent assessment of its low-resolution spectrum along with a new distance from a Gaia parallax (∼1.6 kpc) resulted in an alternative hypothesis that AS 314 is a low-mass post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) star. The latter hypothesis ignored the high-resolution data, which gave rise to the former explanation. We collected over 30 mostly high-resolution spectra taken in 1997–2023, supplemented them with results of long-term photometric surveys, compared the spectra and the spectral energy distribution with those of post-AGB objects and B/A supergiants, and concluded that the observed properties AS 314 are more consistent with those of the latter.
