Poster for the CoolStars23 meeting in Tokyo. Abstract: Observations acquired over eight years of light polarized through scattering off dust and of molecular emission reveal a recent ejection of matter in the close vicinity of Mira A evolving in real time. The ejected material is confined to two high-gas-density lobes. Dust is well traced in one of the lobes and is seen to be mostly confined to a shell surrounding the gas lobe. The measured ejected gas mass and the distribution of the dust with respect to the gas make this event puzzling under the light of the current mass-loss paradigm of AGB stars.
Khouri et al. (Thu,) studied this question.