| Autor: |
R. M. Lau, M. J. Hankins, T. L. Herter, M. R. Morris, E. A. C. Mills, M. E. Ressler |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Astrophysical Journal; 2/20/2016, Vol. 818 Issue 2, p1-1, 1p |
| Abstrakt: |
Massive, evolved stars play a crucial role in the metal enrichment, dust budget, and energetics of the interstellar medium; however, the details of their evolution are uncertain because of their rarity and short lifetimes before exploding as supernovae. Discrepancies between theoretical predictions from single-star evolutionary models and observations of massive stars have evoked a shifting paradigm that implicates the importance of binary interaction. We present mid- to far-infrared observations from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy of a conical “helix” of warm dust (∼180 K) that appears to extend from the Wolf–Rayet star WR102c. Our interpretation of the helix is a precessing, collimated outflow that emerged from WR102c during a previous evolutionary phase as a rapidly rotating luminous blue variable. We attribute the precession of WR102c to gravitational interactions with an unseen compact binary companion whose orbital period can be constrained to 800 days < P < 1400 days from the inferred precession period, τp ∼ 1.4 × 104 yr, and limits imposed on the stellar and orbital parameters of the system. Our results concur with the range of orbital periods (P ≲ 1500 days) where spin-up via mass exchange is expected to occur for massive binary systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
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