A NEAR-INFRARED SURVEY OF THE INNER GALACTIC PLANE FOR WOLF-RAYET STARS. I. METHODS AND FIRST RESULTS: 41 NEW WR STARS
- American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5192 (United States)
- Departement de Physique, Universite de Montreal, CP 6128 Succ. C-V, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7 (Canada)
- Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
- Gemini Observatory, AURA, Casilla 603, La Serena (Chile)
- Departement de Physique, Universite Laval, Pavillon Vachon, Quebec City, QC G1K 7P4 Canada (Canada)
The discovery of new Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in our Galaxy via large-scale narrowband optical surveys has been severely limited by dust extinction. Recent improvements in infrared technology have made narrowband-broadband imaging surveys viable again. We report a new J, K, and narrowband imaging survey of 300 deg{sup 2} of the plane of the Galaxy, spanning 150 degrees in Galactic longitude and reaching 1 degree above and below the Galactic plane. The survey has a useful limiting magnitude of K = 15 over most of the observed Galactic plane, and K = 14 within a few degrees of the Galactic center. Thousands of emission line candidates have been detected. In spectrographic follow-ups of 173 WR star candidates we have discovered 41 new WR stars, 15 of type WN and 26 of type WC. Star subtype assignments have been confirmed with K-band spectra, and distances approximated using the method of spectroscopic parallax. A few of the new WR stars are among the most distant known in our Galaxy. The distribution of these new WR stars is seen to follow that of previously known WR stars along the spiral arms of the Galaxy. Tentative radial velocities were also measured for most of the new WR stars.
- OSTI ID:
- 21255670
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 138, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/138/2/402; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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