WR 142

WR 142
Observation data
Epoch J2000.0      Equinox J2000.0
Constellation Cygnus
Right ascension 20h 21m 44.3s[1]
Declination +37° 22′ 30.56″[1]
Apparent magnitude (V) 12.94[2]
Characteristics
Spectral type WO2[3]
Apparent magnitude (J) 9.538[1]
Apparent magnitude (H) 8.889[1]
Apparent magnitude (K) 8.596[1]
U−B color index −0.29[4]
B−V color index +1.43[5]
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ) RA: −6.270[6] mas/yr
Dec.: −3.422[6] mas/yr
Parallax (π)0.5755 ± 0.0284 mas[6]
Distance1,650+110
−90[7] pc
Absolute magnitude (MV)−3.13[8]
Details
Mass28.6[8] M☉
Radius0.80[8] R☉
Luminosity (bolometric)912,000[8] L☉
Temperature200,000[8] K
Metallicity [Fe/H]0.0[3] dex
Rotational velocity (v sin i)1,000[2] km/s
Other designations
WR 142, 2MASS J20214434+3722306, GSC 02684-00001, Sand 5, St 3, UCAC2 44891902
Database references
SIMBADdata

WR 142 is a Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation Cygnus, an extremely rare star on the WO oxygen sequence. It is a luminous and very hot star, highly evolved and close to exploding as a supernova. It is suspected to be a binary star with a companion orbiting about 1 AU away.

Discovery

Location of WR 142, circled (the bright star at the centre is γ Cygni and north is to the right)
Location of WR 142, circled (the bright star at the centre is γ Cygni and north is to the right)

In 1966, a search for Wolf-Rayet stars in the northern celestial hemisphere discovered seven new examples. One, designated as Stephenson 3, was classified as WC.[9] It was later found to show unusual emission lines of highly ionised OVI.[10] Because of the unusual oxygen lines, seen in only a handful of other stars, it was given the spectral type WC5pec in the Sixth Catalogue of Galactic Wolf-Rayet Stars.[5]

In 1981, described as a WC-OVI star, it was identified as being associated with the active star-forming region ON2,[11] and then a heavily obscured open cluster designated Berkeley 87, 9.5′ south of the red supergiant BC Cygni.[4]

In 1982, the WC-OVI stars were grouped as members of the new WO class. The class at that time consisted of five stars, two of which were in the Magellanic Clouds and one of which was later found to be the central star of a planetary nebula.[12]

Features

WR 142 is usually assumed to be a member of the open cluster Berkeley 87, whose distance from the Sun is not very well known but thought to be around 1.23 kiloparsecs (4,000 light-years). As with its home cluster its light is very reddened and extinguished by interstellar dust.[13]

This star, of spectral classification WO2, is one of the very few known oxygen-sequence Wolf-Rayet stars, just four in the Milky Way galaxy and six in external galaxies. It is also one of the hottest known with a surface temperature of 200,000 K.[3] Modelling the atmosphere gives a luminosity around 245,000 L☉, while calculations from brightness and distance give luminosities of 500,000 L☉ or more. According to Gaia DR2's distance, it could be as much as 912,000 L☉. It is a very small dense star, with a radius of just 80% of the Sun's but a mass of nearly 29 times greater. Very strong stellar winds, with a terminal velocity of 5,000 kilometers per second are causing WR 142 to lose 10−5 M☉/year.[8] For comparison, the Sun loses (2-3) x 10−14 solar masses per year due to its solar wind, several hundred million times less than WR 142.

Hard X-ray emission has been detected from this star with the help of the Chandra space telescope, that has been suggested to be caused by the presence of a companion, a B-type main sequence star located at a distance of 1 AU from WR 142. There is no other indication of a companion and other reasons for the x-ray luminosity are considered more likely.[13]

Evolutionary status

WO Wolf-Rayet stars are the last evolutionary stage of the most massive stars before exploding as supernovae, possibly with a gamma-ray burst (GRB).[14] It is very likely that WR 142 is on its last stages of nuclear fusion, near or beyond the end of helium burning.[15] It is estimated to explode as a supernova in approximately 2,000 years. The mass and rapid rotation make a GRB likely.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Zacharias, N.; et al. (2003). "The Second U.S. Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC2)". CDS/ADC Collection of Electronic Catalogues. 1289: 0. Bibcode:2003yCat.1289....0Z.
  2. ^ a b Sander, A.; Hamann, W. -R.; Todt, H. (2012). "The Galactic WC stars". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 540: A144. arXiv:1201.6354. Bibcode:2012A&A...540A.144S. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117830. S2CID 119182468.
  3. ^ a b c d Tramper, F.; Straal, S. M.; Sanyal, D.; Sana, H.; de Koter, A.; Gräfener, G.; Langer, N.; Vink, J. S.; de Mink, S. E.; Kaper, L. (2015). "Massive stars on the verge of exploding: The properties of oxygen sequence Wolf-Rayet stars". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 581 (110): A110. arXiv:1507.00839v1. Bibcode:2015A&A...581A.110T. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201425390. S2CID 56093231.
  4. ^ a b Turner, D. G.; Forbes, D. (1982). "Berkeley 87, a heavily-obscured young cluster associated with the ON2 star-formation complex and containing the WO star Stephenson 3". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 94: 789. Bibcode:1982PASP...94..789T. doi:10.1086/131065. ISSN 0004-6280.
  5. ^ a b Van Der Hucht, Karel A.; Conti, Peter S.; Lundström, Ingemar; Stenholm, Björn (1981). "The Sixth Catalogue of galactic Wolf-Rayet stars, their past and present". Space Science Reviews. 28 (3): 227–306. Bibcode:1981SSRv...28..227V. doi:10.1007/BF00173260. ISSN 0038-6308. S2CID 121477300.
  6. ^ a b c Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616. A1. arXiv:1804.09365. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051. Gaia DR2 record for this source at VizieR.
  7. ^ Crowther, Paul A.; Rate, Gemma (2020). "Unlocking Galactic Wolf–Rayet stars with Gaia DR2 – I. Distances and absolute magnitudes". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 493 (1): 1512–1529. arXiv:1912.10125. Bibcode:2020MNRAS.493.1512R. doi:10.1093/mnras/stz3614. S2CID 209444955.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Sander, A. A. C.; Hamann, W.-R.; Todt, H.; Hainich, R.; Shenar, T.; Ramachandran, V.; Oskinova, L. M. (2019). "The Galactic WC and WO stars". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 621: A92. arXiv:1807.04293. Bibcode:2019A&A...621A..92S. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833712. S2CID 67754788.
  9. ^ Stephenson, C. B. (1966). "Search for new Northern Wolf-Rayet stars". The Astronomical Journal. 71: 477. Bibcode:1966AJ.....71..477S. doi:10.1086/109951.
  10. ^ Sanduleak, N. (1971). "On Stars Having Strong O VI Emission". The Astrophysical Journal. 164: L71. Bibcode:1971ApJ...164L..71S. doi:10.1086/180694.
  11. ^ Pitault, A. (1981). "Possible association of a WC-OVI star with an active site of star formation". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 97: L5. Bibcode:1981A&A....97L...5P.
  12. ^ Barlow, M. J.; Hummer, D. G. (1982). "The Wo Wolf-Rayet Stars". Wolf-Rayet Stars: Observations, Physics, Evolution. Vol. 99. pp. 387–392. Bibcode:1982IAUS...99..387B. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-7910-9_51. ISBN 978-90-277-1470-1. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  13. ^ a b Sokal, Kimberly R.; Skinner, Stephen L.; Zhekov, Svetozar A.; Güdel, Manuel; Schmutz, Werner (2010). "Chandra Detects the Rare Oxygen-type Wolf-Rayet Star WR 142 and OB Stars in Berkeley 87". The Astrophysical Journal. 715 (2): 1327–1337. arXiv:1004.0462. Bibcode:2010ApJ...715.1327S. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/715/2/1327. S2CID 119232391.
  14. ^ Groh, Jose H.; Meynet, Georges; Georgy, Cyril; Ekstrom, Sylvia (2013). "Fundamental properties of core-collapse Supernova and GRB progenitors: Predicting the look of massive stars before death". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 558: A131. arXiv:1308.4681. Bibcode:2013A&A...558A.131G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201321906. S2CID 84177572.
  15. ^ Groh, Jose (2014). "The evolution of massive stars and their spectra I. A non-rotating 60 Msun star from the zero-age main sequence to the pre-supernova stage". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 564: A30. arXiv:1401.7322. Bibcode:2014A&A...564A..30G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322573. S2CID 118870118.