Ring Nebula and Bipolar Outflows Associated with the B1.5 Supergiant Sher #25 in NGC 3603

Abstract

We have identified a ring-shaped emission-line nebula and a possible bipolar outflow centered on the B1.5 supergiant Sher #25 in the Galactic giant HII region NGC 3603 (distance 6 kpc). The clumpy ring around Sher #25 appears to be tilted by 64 deg against the plane of the sky. Its semi-major axis (position angle approx. 165 deg) is 6.9" long, which corresponds to a ring diameter of 0.4 pc. The bipolar outflow filaments, presumably located above and below the ring plane on either side of Sher #25, show a separation of approx. 0.5 pc from the central star. High-resolution spectra show that the ring has a systemic velocity of V_LSR = +19 km/s and a de-projected expansion velocity of 20 km/s, and that one of the bipolar filaments has an outflow speed of approx. 83 km/s. The spectra also show high [NII]/Halpha ratio, suggestive of strong N enrichment. Sher #25 must be an evolved blue supergiant (BSG) past the red supergiant (RSG) stage. We find that the ratio of equatorial to polar mass-loss rate during the red supergiant phase was approx 16. We discuss the results in the framework of RSG-BSG wind evolutionary models. We compare Sher #25 to the progenitor of SN 1987A, which it resembles in many aspects.