POPULATION I WOLF-RAYET RUNAWAY STARS: THE CASE OF WR124 AND ITS EXPANDING NEBULA M1-67

Journal Article · Sat Nov 20 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/724/1/L90· OSTI ID:21452659

Marchenko, S V ^[1]; Moffat, A F. J. ^[2]

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1. Science Systems and Applications, Inc., 10210 Greenbelt Road, Suite 600, Lanham, MD 20706 (United States)
2. Departement de Physique and Observatoire du Mont Megantic, Universite de Montreal, CP 6128, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC H3C 3J7 (Canada)

In 1997 and 2008 we used the WFPC2 camera on board the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain two sets of narrow-band H{alpha} images of the runaway Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR 124 surrounded by its nebula M1-67. This two-epoch imaging provides an expansion parallax and thus a practically assumption-free geometric distance to the nebula, d = 3.35 {+-} 0.67 kpc. Combined with the global velocity distribution in the ejected nebula, this confirms the extreme runaway status of WR 124. WR stars embedded within such ejection nebulae at the point of core collapse would produce different supernova characteristics from those expected for stars surrounded by wind-filled cavities. In galaxies with extremely low ambient metallicity, Z {<=} 10{sup -3} Z {sub sun}, {gamma}-ray bursts originating from fast-moving runaway WR stars may produce afterglows which appear to be coming from regions with a relatively homogeneous circumburst medium.

• OSTI ID: 21452659
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 724; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
AFTERGLOW
BINARY STARS
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
COSMIC RADIATION
DISTANCE
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
GALAXIES
IONIZING RADIATIONS
NEBULAE
PRIMARY COSMIC RADIATION
RADIATIONS
STARS
SUPERNOVAE
TELESCOPES
VARIABLE STARS