  The complex circumstellar ejecta of highly evolved, cool hypergiants are
indicative of multiple, asymmetric mass loss events. To explore whether such
episodic, non-isotropic mass loss may be driven by surface magnetic activity,
we have observed the archetypical cool hypergiant VY CMa with the XMM-Newton
X-ray satellite observatory. The hypergiant itself is not detected in these
observations. From the upper limit on the X-ray flux from VY CMa at the time of
our observations ($F_{X,UL}~\approx~8\times10^{-14} {\rm~erg~cm}^{-2}
{\rm~s}^{-1}$, corresponding to $\log~L_X/L_{bol}\leq-8$), we estimate an
average surface magnetic field strength $fB \leq 2\times10^{-3}$~G (where $f$
is the filling factor of magnetically active surface regions). These X-ray
results for VY CMa represent the most stringent constraints to date on the
magnetic field strength near the surface of a hypergiant. VY CMa's mass loss is
episodic and may have been in a state of low surface magnetic activity during
the XMM observations. The XMM observations also yield detections of more than
100 X-ray sources within $\sim$15$^{\prime}$ of VY CMa, roughly 50 of which
have near-infrared counterparts. Analysis of X-ray hardness ratios and IR
colors indicates that some of these field sources may be young, late-type stars
associated with VY CMa, its adjacent molecular cloud complex, and the young
cluster NGC 2362. Further study of the VY CMa field is warranted, given the
potential to ascertain the evolutionary timescale of this enigmatic, massive
star.
