Letter to the Editor

Stephenson 2 DFK 52: Discovery of an exotic red supergiant in the massive stellar cluster RSGC2

¹ Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
² Department of Molecular Astrophysics, Instituto de Física Fundamental (IFF-CSIC), C/ Serrano 123, 28006 Madrid, Spain

^⋆ Corresponding author.

Received: 16 June 2025
Accepted: 6 July 2025

Abstract

Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations at 1.3 mm have recently revealed surprising complexity in the circumstellar environment of DFK 52, a red supergiant (RSG) located in the Stephenson 2 massive open cluster. We provide an initial characterisation of the star’s mass-loss properties by studying its circumstellar emission in continuum, ¹²CO, ¹³CO, and SiO rotational lines. We find that DFK 52 is surrounded by an extremely large outflow (up to 50 000 au in radius) that shows complex morphologies in both its molecular and dust emission. The size of the circumstellar medium is unprecedented, even when compared with other known extreme RSGs, and its lower luminosity indicates that its mass ejection mechanism may be unique among this population. The molecular emission can be partially reproduced by a two-component model consisting of a fast (27 km s⁻¹) detached equatorial component with M ∼ 0.05 M_⊙ and a slow (10 km s⁻¹) spherical envelope with Ṁ ∼ 3 × 10⁻⁶ M_⊙ yr⁻¹. This suggests that DFK 52 underwent a dramatic mass-loss event ∼4000 years ago, but has since transitioned into having a slower more symmetric mass loss. We conservatively estimate a total mass of 0.1 − 1 M_⊙ in the complex extended regions of the outflow. The uncertain nature of the dramatic mass loss warrants extensive follow-up of this likely supernova progenitor.