Be Stars are rapidly rotating massive stars that eject gas into a circumstellar disk. Long baseline optical/infrared interferometry can spatially resolve the disks around Be stars.
Image reconstruction of the Be star Phi Per. The disk contributes about 29% of the total flux in the near-infrared H-band. The location of the faint, subdwarf companion is shown with the best fit circular orbit with a period of 126.7 days. The companion contributes only 1.5% of the total light. Image credit: Mourard, D., et al. 2015, A&A, 577, 51
Sequence of intensity maps of the Be star Phi Per (6.4 × 6.4 mas) as a function of wavelength with north up and east left as imaged by VEGA (upper sequence), as computed from the kinematic model (middle sequence), and as imaged through a simulated observation of the above model (lower sequence). Image credit: Mourard, D., et al. 2015, A&A, 577, 51
