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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Discovery of a new Wolf-Rayet star and a candidate star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud with Spitzer
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 442, No. 2, Year 2014
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Description
We report the first-ever discovery of a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star in the Large Magellanic Cloud via detection of a circular shell with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Follow-up observations with Gemini-South resolved the central star of the shell into two components separated from each other by ≈2 arcsec (or ≈0.5 pc in projection). One of these components turns out to be aWN3 star with H and He lines both in emission and absorption (we named it BAT99 3a using the numbering system based on extending the Breysacher et al. catalogue). Spectroscopy of the second component showed that it is a B0 V star. Subsequent spectroscopic observations of BAT99 3a with the du Pont 2.5-m telescope and the Southern African Large Telescope revealed that it is a close, eccentric binary system, and that the absorption lines are associated with an O companion star. We analysed the spectrum of the binary system using the non-LTE Potsdam WR (POWR) code, confirming that theWR component is a very hot (≈90 kK)WN star. For this star, we derived a luminosity of log L/L⊙ = 5.45 and amass-loss rate of 10-5.8 M⊙ yr-1, and found that the stellar wind composition is dominated by helium with 20 per cent of hydrogen. Spectroscopy of the shell revealed an He III region centred on BAT99 3a and having the same angular radius (≈15 arcsec) as the shell. We thereby add a new example to a rare class of highexcitation nebulae photoionized by WR stars. Analysis of the nebular spectrum showed that the shell is composed of unprocessed material, implying that the shell was swept-up from the local interstellar medium. We discuss the physical relationship between the newly identified massive stars and their possible membership of a previously unrecognized star cluster. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Authors & Co-Authors
Gvaramadze, V. V.
Russian Federation, Moscow
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Russian Federation, Moscow
Isaac Newton Institute of Chile
Cheńe, André Nicolas
Chile, Valparaiso
Universidad de Valparaiso
Chile, Biobio
Universidad de Concepcion
United States, Hilo
Gemini Observatory
Kniazev, Alexei Yu
Russian Federation, Moscow
Lomonosov Moscow State University
South Africa, Cape Town
South African Astronomical Observatory
South Africa, Cape Town
Southern African Large Telescope Foundation
Schnurr, Olivier
Germany, Potsdam
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam
Shenar, Tomer
Germany, Potsdam
Universität Potsdam
Sander, Andreas A.C.
Germany, Potsdam
Universität Potsdam
Hainich, Rainer
Germany, Potsdam
Universität Potsdam
Langer, Norbert
Germany, Bonn
Universität Bonn
Hamann, Wolf Rainer
Germany, Potsdam
Universität Potsdam
Chu, Youhua
United States, Urbana
University of Illinois Urbana-champaign
Gruendl, Robert A.
United States, Urbana
University of Illinois Urbana-champaign
Statistics
Citations: 11
Authors: 11
Affiliations: 11
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1093/mnras/stu909
ISSN:
00358711
e-ISSN:
13652966
Research Areas
Environmental
Study Design
Cohort Study