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Efficient detection of water masers

Abstract

During the past 15 years almost 190 natural sources of 22 GHz water maser emission have been found in the dusty circumstellar shells of late-type stars undergoing mass-loss. Numbered among these sources are 75% of the Mira variables within 400 pc of the Sun1, although only 34% of Miras in general are associated with OH masers2. Stars enshrouded by circumstellar matter are easily recognized today by the characteristic colour-range of their far infrared flux3. The accuracy of this discrimination has been well-tested during searches for OH masers4–6, which unlike water masers7 depend on the infrared for their pumping. Colour-selecting IRAS (Infrared Astronomy Satellite) sources provides a convenient means of pinpointing likely new water masers, an approach first tested by Engels et al.4. We report here on the initial results of a more extensive survey, during which we found 60 masers, 49 of them detections. Most are associated with 1,612-MHz masers, but 7 are sources without other known masers. Our results rule out the binary hypothesis2,8 as a plausible general explanation for the existence of the many sources having far infrared colours typical of OH/infrared stars, which show no sign of any 1,612-MHz emission. Our data support the idea that sources evolve in both their colours and their rate of mass-loss.

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Lewis, B., Engels, D. Efficient detection of water masers. Nature 332, 49–51 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/332049a0

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