[Previous] | [Session 99] | [Next]
M. Fich (Univ. of Waterloo), J. Giannakopoulou-Creighton (Univ. of Waterloo, IPAC/CalTech), B. Balick (Univ. of Washington)
A number of authors have classified the object S266 as an HII region or as a planetary nebula. We suggest that it is a nebula around a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV). S266 is located close to the Galactic Anticenter (at l=195\circ) and contains a central stellar object, MWC137, which has been classified as a possible Ae/Be star at a distance of 1.3 kpc (Weintraub, 1990). We show that S266 is associated with a molecular cloud at a moderately well-determined kinematic distance of 9.6 ±4.8 kpc. Published photometry on MWC137 combined with our spectra of the nebular (to estimate extinction) lead to an absolute magnitude of MV=-8.2, consistent with the star being a type Ia supergiant. From VLA observations we find a mass loss rate for MWC137 of (8.8 ±4.4) \times 10-6 M\odot \;/year. We show that the wind from MWC137 has swept up a substantial amount of mass (\approx 10 M\odot) in a shell.