AN APPARENT PRECESSING HELICAL OUTFLOW FROM A MASSIVE EVOLVED STAR: EVIDENCE FOR BINARY INTERACTION
- Astronomy Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, 430 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O 1009, Lopezville Drive, Socorro, NM 87801 (United States)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
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, τ{sub p} ∼ 1.4 × 10{sup 4} 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.
- OSTI ID:
- 22521542
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 818, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
ISOLATED WOLF-RAYET STARS AND O SUPERGIANTS IN THE GALACTIC CENTER REGION IDENTIFIED VIA PASCHEN-{alpha} EXCESS
ON THE PROGENITOR AND SUPERNOVA OF THE SN 2002cx-LIKE SUPERNOVA 2008ge ,