ATOMIUM
ATOMIUM:
ALMA Tracing the Origins of Molecules In dUst-forming oxygen-rich M-type stars
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Project Summary:
The ATOMIUM Large Program (2018.1.00659.L) with the ALMA 12 m array is dedicated to an investigation of the interplay between the gas phase chemistry and dynamics, and the dust forming process in the winds of evolved asymptotic giant branch stars (AGB) and red supergiants (RSG). Seventeen oxygen rich AGB and RSG stars — spanning a range in (circum)stellar parameters and evolutionary phases — were observed in a series of homogeneous observations that covered 27 GHz in the 213-270 GHz range. The observations were done with 3 array configurations at an angular resolution of ~0.025" to ~1", a sensitivity of 1.5-5 mJy/beam, and a spectral resolution of ~1.3 km/s. The wind kinematics derived from the spectral line profiles reveal that the radial velocity described by the momentum equation for a spherical wind does not capture the complexity of the velocity field. The ATOMIUM observations are complemented by optical/IR studies, spectral and interferometric monitoring of some of the species, and maser and chemical kinetic modeling. Detailed maps of the distributions of the 24 molecules observed in the survey and the associated continuum emission, serve as a Legacy for the astronomical community by (i) providing the basis for new insights in the physicochemical processes that occur in other astrophysical environments; and (ii) serving as a crucial benchmark for establishing the wind dynamics of evolved stars in single and binary star systems. More information can be found at the ATOMIUM Consortium web page.
Team Members:
| Status | Surname | Name | Affiliation |
| PI | Decin | Leen | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| CoPI | Gottlieb | Carl | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (MA, USA) |
Consortium:
This lists current and former members of the consortium as of 2025 AprilFor up to date details please see the ATOMIUM Consortium web page.
| Surname | Name | Affiliation |
| Andriantsaralaza | Miora | Deptartment of Physics & Astronomy, Uppsala University (Sweden) |
| Baudry | Alain | Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. Bordeaux (France) |
| Bolte | Jan | Department of Mathematics, Kiel University (Germany) |
| Boulangier | Jels | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Cannon | Emily | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium); Science Foundation Ireland |
| Ceulemans | Thomas | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Coenegrachts | Arnout | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Danilovich | Taissa | School of Physics & Astronomy, Monash University (Australia) |
| De Beck | Elvire | Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden) |
| De Ceuster | Frederik | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| de Koter | Alex | Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) |
| Dionese | David | Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, ULB Brussels (Belgium) |
| El Mellah | Ileyk | CIRAS, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (Chile) |
| Esseldeurs | Mats | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Etoka | Sandra | Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester (UK) |
| Gobrecht | David | Department of Chemistry & Molecular Biology, Gothenburg University (Sweden) |
| Gottlieb | Elaine | School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University (US) |
| Gray | Malcolm | National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Thailand) |
| Herpin | Fabrice | Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. Bordeaux (France) |
| Homan | Ward | Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, ULB Brussels (Belgium) |
| Jeste | Manali | Max-Planck-Institut fĂĽr Radioastronomie (Germany) |
| Kee | Dylan | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium); NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA) |
| Kervella | Pierre | LESIA, Observatoire de Paris (France) |
| Khouri | Theo | Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden) |
| Lagadec | Eric | Lagrange, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (France) |
| Lee | Kelvin | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (MA, USA) |
| Lewis | Megan | Leiden Observatory (Netherlands) |
| Maercker | Matthias | Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden) |
| Maes | Silke | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Malfait | Jolien | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Marinho | Louise | University of Bordeaux (France) |
| McDonald | Iain | Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester (UK) |
| Menten | Karl | Max-Planck-Institut fĂĽr Radioastronomie (Germany) |
| Millar | Tom | Astrophysics Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast, (UK) |
| Montargès | Miguel | LESIA - Observatoire de Paris - PSL (France) |
| Müller | Holger | I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln (Germany) |
| Nuth | Joe | NASA/GSFC (MD, USA) |
| Pimpanuwat | Bannawit | National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Thailand) |
| Plane | John | University of Leeds (UK) |
| Price | Daniel | Monash Centre for Astrophysics (Australia) |
| Rieder | Steven | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Richards | Anita | Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester (UK) |
| Sahai | Raghvendra | Jet Propulsion Laboratory (CA, USA) |
| Siess | Lionel | Institut d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique, ULB Brussels (Belgium) |
| Sindel | Jan Philip | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Van de Sande | Marie | Leiden Observatory (Netherlands) |
| Vermeulen | Owen | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Wallstrom | Sofia | Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven (Belgium) |
| Waters | Rens | SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research (Netherlands); Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) |
| Wong | Ka Tat | Deptartment of Physics & Astronomy, Uppsala University (Sweden) |
| Yates | Jeremy | Department of Computer Science, UCL (UK) |
| Zijlstra | Albert | Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester (UK) |
ATOMIUM Publications:
ATOMIUM Large Program
These papers provide the motivation of ATOMIUM, the data processing and the first results. Please see the ATOMIUM Consortium web page for an updated list of papers, posters, presentations, etc.
Decin, L., Gottlieb, C., Richards, A., et al. "ATOMIUM: ALMA Tracing the Origins of Molecules In dUst forming oxygen-rich M-type stars”, 2022, The Messenger, 189, 3; doi:10.18727/0722-6691/5283
Gottlieb, C. A., Decin, L., Richards, A. M. S., et al. “ATOMIUM: ALMA tracing the origins of molecules in dust forming oxygen rich M-type stars: Motivation, sample, calibration, and initial results”, 2022, A&A, 660, A94; doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202140431
Decin, L., Montargès, M., Richards, A. M. S., et al. “(Sub)stellar companions shape the winds of evolved stars”, 2020, Science, 369, 1497; doi:10.1126/science.abb1229
ATOMIUM products:
See Gottlieb et al. 2022A&A...660A..94G for details of ATOMIUM observations and data processing. For each of 17 stars, 16 frequency tunings were used to make spectral image cubes numbered 00 - 15 as shown in the table below. The compact, mid and extended configurations give resolutions around 1", 0".3, 0".03, respectively, and the configurations combined have resolutions around 0".1 (which can be modified by re-imaging).| Cube | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| Nchan | 1920 | 1920 | 1920 | 1920 | 1920 | 1920 | 1920 | 960 | 960 | 1920 | 1920 | 1920 | 1920 | 960 | 1920 | 1920 |
| Min (GHz) | 213.9 | 216.1 | 220.3 | 223.7 | 227.3 | 229.6 | 235.5 | 239.2 | 244.1 | 245.4 | 251.6 | 254.0 | 258.7 | 262.1 | 265.6 | 267.8 |
| Max (GHz) | 215.7 | 217.9 | 222.1 | 225.5 | 229.1 | 231.5 | 237.3 | 240.1 | 245.0 | 247.3 | 253.5 | 255.8 | 260.6 | 263.1 | 267.4 | 269.7 |
The minimum and maximimum frequencies are in GHz, the exact values depend on the stellar velocity. All channels are 0.9765 MHz wide, but for some cubes the original channel numbering is from high to low frequencies.
All cubes were observed in Mid and Extended configurations, 00, 01, 04, 05, 08, 09, 12, 13 also in Compact configuration.
All data were processed by the ALMA pipeline. We performed additional calibration and the resulting measurement sets, continuum images and spectral cubes are available along with the original data from the ALMA Science Archive. Data reduction scripts and spectra extracted from each cube are also available.
Product list:
Start by downloading the README.txt summary of the LP products you want:| Star | LINKS | LINKS |
| AH_Sco | README | Data Description |
| GY_Aql | README | Data Description |
| IRC+10011 | README | Data Description |
| IRC_10529 | README | Data Description |
| KW_Sgr | README | Data Description |
| pi1_Gru | README | Data Description |
| RW_Sco | README | Data Description |
| R_Aql | README | Data Description |
| R_Hya | README | Data Description |
| SV_Aqr | README | Data Description |
| S_Pav | README | Data Description |
| T_Mic | README | Data Description |
| U_Del | README | Data Description |
| U_Her | README | Data Description |
| VX_Sgr | README | Data Description |
| V_PsA | README | Data Description |
| W_Aql | README | Data Description |
The README files provide a summary of how to obtain MS, image cubes, scripts etc. and can alternatively be downloaded using the command line or a script in a format such as
wget https://almascience.org/dataPortal/group.uid___A001_X133d_X131f.lp_ldecin.README.txt
This is for VX Sgr; you can download for every star but the methods are general:
The description files, e.g. wget https://almascience.eso.org/dataPortal/group.uid___A001_X133d_X12e9.lp_ldecin.description.pdf provide more details of data processing.
Script atomium_asa.py is a template for downloading of multiple data products.
atomium_filesizes.tab lists available data products and file sizes. In summary, per file or set:
Documentation <1 MB;
Spectra <10 MB (text files)
Images (fits) continuum <5 GB; cubes: compact <1 GB; mid < 11GB; extended <8 GB; combined <19 GB.
Visibility data (measurement sets): continuum <65 GB; line and contsub MS 7 to 70 GB