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Francesco Di Mille
Australian Magellan Fellow
Las Campanas Observatory (OCIW)
& Gemini South Visiting Astronomer
 

"Discovery of a High-collimated outflow from Sanduleak's Star in the Large Magellanic Cloud"
 

In the framework of a systematic observational campaign aimed at characterizing the symbiotic phenomenon in the Magellanic Clouds, we have recently discovered with the Magellan telescopes a jet-like feature around Sanduleak's star, an intriguing object controversially classified as symbiotic. With a physical extent of more than 14 parsecs , it represents one of the largest stellar jet ever discovered. The kinematics and extreme chemical composition of the ejecta from Sanduleak's star suggest that we may be seeing the progenitor of a supernova, while the precise knowledge of the jet's distance means that we can derive accurate estimates for most of its physical properties.