The processes leading to dust formation and the subsequent role it plays in driving mass loss in cool evolved stars is an area of intense study .
Here we present high resolution ALMA Science Verification data of the continuum emission around the highly evolved oxygen-rich red supergiant VY CMa .
These data enable us to study the dust in its inner circumstellar environment at a spatial resolution of 129 mas at 321 GHz and 59 mas at 658 GHz , thus allowing us to trace dust on spatial scales down to 11 R _ { \star } ( 71 AU ) .
Two prominent dust components are detected and resolved .
The brightest dust component , C , is located 334 mas ( 61 R _ { \star } ) South East of the star and has a dust mass of at least 2.5 \times 10 ^ { -4 } M _ { \odot } .
It has a dust emissivity spectral index of \beta = -0.1 at its peak , implying that it is optically thick at these frequencies with a cool core of T _ { d } \lesssim 100 K. Interestingly , not a single molecule in the ALMA data has emission close to the peak of this massive dust clump .
The other main dust component , VY , is located at the position of the star and contains a total dust mass of 4.0 \times 10 ^ { -5 } M _ { \odot } .
It also contains a weaker dust feature extending over 60 R _ { \star } to the North with the total component having a typical dust emissivity spectral index of \beta = 0.7 .
We find that at least 17 \% of the dust mass around VY CMa is located in clumps ejected within a more quiescent roughly spherical stellar wind , with a quiescent dust mass loss rate of 5 \times 10 ^ { -6 } M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } .
The anisotropic morphology of the dust indicates a continuous , directed mass loss over a few decades , suggesting that this mass loss can not be driven by large convection cells alone .