Towards constraints on massive galactic stars using VLT/SPHERE with high-contrast imaging

Abstract

While the formation of massive stars remains heavily debated, it is nowadays clear that the formation scenarios need to account for the high-degree of multiplicity of these objects that has been observed by recent studies. Here we introduce the Carina High-contrast Imaging Project for massive Stars (CHIPS) that aims to obtain coronagraphic observations of massive stars in the Carina region using VLT/SPHERE. We illustrate the capabilities of SPHERE for massive stars by focusing on the QZ Car system. We detect 19 sources, most of them for the first time, within a 7x7′′ field of view. We show that contrast better than 9 mag can be achieved at separation larger than 200 mas. We also investigate avenues to obtain a first characterisation of the detected sources by fitting their source energy distribution with pre-main sequence stellar atmosphere modelsstatus: publishe