Mass loss from early-type stars

Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:5773111

Conti, P S

Stellar winds are observed in hot and luminous stars of all types. The evidence for the winds comes from observations of P Cygni profiles of resonance lines of highly ionized common species, from emission lines of highly excited ions, and from free-free radiation from the electrons in the outflowing material. Stellar winds have as their dominant origin the radiation pressure in the ultraviolet lines coupling momentum to the wind as a whole. It was found that for the most luminous OB stars, in which the winds can readily be detected, the mass loss rate is proportional to the luminosity, L, to a power alpha, where alpha is of the order of 1.7. This relation carries over four orders of magnitude in the mass loss rates. This relation also continues to the lower luminosity giant and main sequence B type stars. By contrast, the mass loss rates for the enigmatic Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars, which have among themselves vastly different spectra, luminosities, and masses are similar.

• Research Organization: Joint Inst. for Lab. Astrophysics, Boulder, CO (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5773111
• Report Number(s): N-8322079
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
EMISSION SPECTRA
ENERGY
GIANT STARS
GRAVITATION
KINETIC ENERGY
LOSSES
LUMINOSITY
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MORPHOLOGY
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SPECTRA
STARS
STELLAR WINDS
WOLF-RAYET STARS