The extremely rapid evolution of the central star of the Stingray nebula - Latest news from the HST

Nicole Reindl, T.Rauch, M. Parthasarathy & K. Werner

Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany

SAO 244567 is an unusually fast evolving star. Within twenty years only, it has turned from a B-type supergiant into the central star of the Stingray nebula. Space and ground-based observations obtained over the last decades have revealed that its spectrum changes noticeably over just a few years, showing stellar evolution in real time. Previous analysis indicates that SAO 244567 must be a low mass star and thus the observed fast evolution is in strong contradiction with canonical post-asymptotic giant branch evolution. To obtain further clues on its evolutionary status we have obtained new UV spectra with HST/COS in August 2015. Here we present preliminary results of these observations.

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