Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T10:16:55.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The interstellar medium around Wolf-Rayet stars: clues to evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

Joy S. Nichols
Joy S. Nichols*
Affiliation:
Computer Sciences Corp./IUE Observatory, NASA-GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, U.S.A.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Multi-wavelength investigations of the interstellar environment around WR stars using IUE, IRAS, and optical data have led to the discovery of extended shells of gas and dust 50-100 pc in diameter in the lines of sight to the WR stars HD 50896, HD 96548, and HD 192163. These three stars share several common characteristics: (1) associated N- and He-enriched ring nebula, (2) spectral class WN5-8, and (3) spectral and photometric variability. Surveys of IUE spectra and IRAS images reveal a few additional candidates for such extended shells. Although positional coincidences cannot be excluded, possible origins of these extended shells include interstellar bubbles formed by stellar winds, non-conservative mass loss from binary systems, and supernova remnants. Current data suggest these three stars may be in a post X-ray binary stage, representing the second WR phase of massive binary star evolution. The discovery of extended shells of gas and dust possibly related to WR stars is important because the search for stars in the second WR phase, after the supernova of the primary, has been quite elusive. However, the observational evidence and available theoretical models for post-supernova massive binary star evolution and subsequent non-conservative mass transfer are not yet sufficient to firmly identify the origins of these extended shells.

Keywords

stars: Wolf-Rayetring nebulaeevolution
Type
Session I - Basic parameters, properties of single Wolf-Ray et stars
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 163: Wolf-Rayet Stars: Binaries, Colliding Winds, Evolution , 1995 , pp. 34 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1995 

References

Abbott, D.C., Bieging, J.H., Churchwell, E., Torres, A.V. 1986 ApJ 303, 239 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antokhin, I.I., Aslanov, A.A., Cherepashchuk, A.M. 1982, Sov. Astron. (Letters) 8, 395 Google Scholar
Arnal, E.M., Mirabel, I.F. 1991, A&A 250, 171 Google Scholar
Arnal, E.M. 1992, A&A 254, 305 Google Scholar
Cappa de Nicolau, C.E., Niemela, V.S. 1984, AJ 89, 1398 Google Scholar
Cappa de Nicolau, C.E., Niemela, V.S., Arnal, E.M. 1986, AJ 92 1414 Google Scholar
Cappa de Nicolau, C.E., Niemela, V.S., Dubner, G.M., Arnal, E.M. 1988, AJ 96 1671 Google Scholar
Delgado, A.J., Thomas, H.-C. 1981, A&A 96, 142 Google Scholar
Drissen, L., Lamontagne, R., Moffat, A.F.J., Bastein, P., Seguin, M. 1986, ApJ 304, 188 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubner, G.M., Niemela, V.S., Purton, C.R. 1990, AJ 99, 857 Google Scholar
Esteban, C., Vílchez, J.M. 1992, ApJ 390, 536 Google Scholar
Esteban, C., Vílchez, J.M., Smith, L.J., Clegg, R.E.S. 1992 A&A 259, 629 Google Scholar
Firmani, C., Koeigsberger, G., Bisiacchi, G.F., Moffat, A.F.J., Habets, G.M.H.J. 1986, A&A 165, 95 Google Scholar
Grant, G.J., Chu, Y.-H. 1993, ApJ Suppl. 85, 137 Google Scholar
Hellings, P., de Loore, C. 1986, A&A 161, 75 Google Scholar
Howarth, I.D., Phillips, A.P. 1986, MNRAS 222, 809 Google Scholar
Hut, P., van den Heuvel, E.P.J. 1981, A&A 94, 327 Google Scholar
Isserstedt, J. 1980, ApJ 239, 607 Google Scholar
Isserstedt, J., Moffat, A.F.J. 1981, A&A 96, 133 Google Scholar
Isserstedt, J., Moffat, A.F.J., Niemela, V.S. 1983, A&A 126, 183 Google Scholar
Lozinskaya, T.A. 1992, in: Supernovae and Stellar Wind in the Interstellar Medium (New York: American Inst, of Phys.), p.337 Google Scholar
Margon, B. 1984, Ann. Rev. A&A 22, 507 Google Scholar
Marston, A.P. 1991, ApJ 366, 181 Google Scholar
Mathis, J.S., Cassinelli, J.P., van der Hucht, K.A., Prusti, T., Wesselius, P.R., Williams, P.M. 1992, ApJ 384, 197 Google Scholar
Moffat, A.F.J., Isserstedt, J. 1980, A&A 91, 147 Google Scholar
Moffat, A.F.J., Niemela, V.S. 1982, A&A 108, 326 Google Scholar
Nichols-Bohlin, J., Fesen, R.A. 1986, AJ 92, 642 Google Scholar
Nichols-Bohlin, J., Fesen, R.A. 1990, ApJ 353, 281 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nichols-Bohlin, J., Fesen, R.A. 1993, AJ 105, 672 Google Scholar
Nichols, J. S., Fesen, R.A. 1994, A&A in press Google Scholar
Niemela, V. S., Cappa de Nicolau, C.E. 1991, AJ 101, 572 Google Scholar
Paresce, F., Nota, A. 1989, ApJ (Letters) 341, L83 Google Scholar
Rózyczka, M., Tenorio-Tagle, G., Franco, J., Bodenheimer, P. 1993, MNRAS 261, 674 Google Scholar
Smith, L.J. 1991, in: van der Hucht, K.A. & Hidayat, B. (eds.), Wolf-Rayet Stars and Interrelations with Other Massive Stars in Galaxies, Proc. IAU Symp. No. 163 (Dordrecht: Kluwer), p. 385 Google Scholar
Smith, L.J., Crowther, P.A., Prinja, R.K. 1994, A&A 281, 833 Google Scholar
St-Louis, N., Smith, L.J. 1991, A&A 252, 781 Google Scholar
Tenorio-Tagle, G., Rózyczka, M., Franco, J., Bodenheimer, P. 1991, MNRAS 251, 318 Google Scholar
van den Heuvel, E.P.J., Heise, J. 1972, Nature 239, 67 Google Scholar
van den Heuvel, E.P.J., Ostriker, J.P., Petterson, J.A. 1980, A&A (Letters) 81, L7 Google Scholar