The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey

III. First data release of JCMT CO-line observations

¹ Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D bus 2401, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
² Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, 11F of Astronomy-Mathematics Building, No.1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei 106319, Taiwan
³ Centre for Astrophysics Research, Department of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics, College Lane Campus, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK
⁴ European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Santiago RM, Chile
⁵ Space Science Institute, 4750 Walnut Street, Suite 205, Boulder, CO 80301, USA
⁶ Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro #8701, ExHda. San José de la Huerta 58089. Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico
⁷ East Asian Observatory (JCMT), 660 N. A’ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
⁸ JBCA, Department Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
⁹ School of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
¹¹ Departamento de Física, Matemáticas y Materiales, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico
¹² Institute of Space Science (ICE), CSIC, Can Magrans, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
¹³ ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
¹⁴ Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), 08860 Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
¹⁵ Schmidt Sciences, New York, NY 10011, USA
¹⁶ National Science Foundation, 2415 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, USA
¹⁷ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Code 667, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA AND US National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA
¹⁸ Department of Astronomy, Xiamen University, Zengcuo’an West Road, Xiamen 361005, PR China
¹⁹ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, 53121 Bonn, Germany
²⁰ Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Rabiánska 8, 87-100, Toruń, Poland
²¹ Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, PR China
²² National Taiwan Normal University, Earth Sciences, 88 Section 4, Ting-Chou Road, Taipei 11677, Taiwan
²³ School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queen’s Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
²⁴ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
²⁵ SOFIA-USRA, NASA Ames Research Center, MS 232-12, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
²⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada
²⁷ Institute for Earth and Space Exploration, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7, Canada
²⁸ European Space Agency, ESTEC/SRE-SA, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
²⁹ School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton 3800 Victoria, Australia
³⁰ Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics Research and Technology (CHART), School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
³¹ Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, ST5 5BG, UK
³² SETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 100, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
³³ Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010, USA
³⁴ Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University, 726 Broadway, New York, NY 10003, USA
³⁵ Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 396 Yangfangwang, Guandu District, Kunming 650216, China
³⁶ Chinese Academy of Sciences South America Center for Astronomy, National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
³⁷ Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago, Chile
³⁸ Amanogawa Galaxy Astronomy Research Center, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, 1-21-35 Korimoto, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
³⁹ Center for General Education, Institute for Comprehensive Education, Kagoshima University, 1-21-30 Korimoto, Kagoshima 8900065, Japan
⁴⁰ UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
⁴¹ Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) 776, Daedeokdae-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34055, Republic of Korea
⁴² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kagoshima University, 1-2135 Korimoto, Kagoshima, Japan
⁴³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
⁴⁴ https://evolvedstars.space/members

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 8 July 2025
Accepted: 24 October 2025

Abstract

Low- to intermediate-mass (∼ 0.8−8 M_⊙) evolved stars contribute significantly to the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium in the local Universe. It is therefore crucial to accurately measure the mass return in their final evolutionary stages. The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey (NESS) is a large multi-telescope project targeting a volume-limited sample of ∼ 850 stars within 3 kpc in order to derive the dust and gas return rates in the solar neighbourhood, and to constrain the physics underlying these processes. We present an initial analysis of the CO-line observations, including detection statistics, carbon isotopic ratios, initial mass-loss rates, and gas-to-dust ratios. We describe a new data reduction pipeline for homogeneity, which we use to analyse the available NESS CO data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, measuring line parameters and calculating empirical gas mass-loss rates. We present the first release of the available data on 485 sources, one of the largest homogeneous samples of CO data to date. Comparison with a large combined literature sample finds that high mass-loss rate and especially carbon-rich sources are over-represented in literature, while NESS is probing significantly more sources at low mass-loss rates, detecting 59 sources in CO for the first time and providing useful upper limits on non-detections. CO line detection rates are 81% for the CO(2−1) line and 75% for CO(3−2). The majority (82%) of detected lines conform to the expected soft parabola shape, while eleven sources show a double wind. Calculated mass-loss rates show power-law relations with both the dust-production rates and expansion velocities, up to a mass-loss rate saturation value ∼ 5 × 10⁻⁶ M_⊙ yr⁻¹. Median gas-to-dust ratios of 250 and 680 are found for oxygen-rich and carbon-rich sources, respectively. Our analysis of CO observations in this first data release highlights the importance of our volume-limited approach in characterizing the local AGB population as a whole.