Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T01:21:01.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ring nebulae: what they tell us about Wolf-Rayet stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Anthony P. Marston*
Affiliation:
Physics & Astronomy Department, Drake University, Des Moines, IA 50311, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The environments of evolved massive stars provide an opportunity of obtaining information on the past, as well as current, condition of the stars themselves. In this review we will look at the incidence of ring nebulae around Wolf-Rayet stars, their differing morphologies at various wavelengths and the existence of multiple, concentric shells. We use this information to show that WRs are indeed evolved stars and that the various phases of evolution for a WR star are evidenced in their environments. Abundance measurements and kinematics show that complex forms of mass ejection are likely to have occurred in the evolution of WR stars providing clumpy structures of dust, and both ionized and neutral gas. Gas kinematics also provide estimates to the time-scales of each of the evolutionary phases of WR stars, which can be combined with estimates of nebular masses to provide the approximate values for such crucial parameters as total mass-loss and historical mass-loss rates. Overall, it is illustrated that studies of the environments of WR stars have the potential to provide important information about the mass-loss history of very massive stars, including estimates of the time period of each mass-loss phase, typical mass loss rates, total mass lost and likely evolutionary path. Some of the remaining problems relating to the use of ring nebulae as probes to the evolutionary history of WR stars are also discussed.

Type
Part 3. Interaction of Wolf-Rayet stars and other hot massive stars with their environment: colliding winds and ring nebulae
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

References

Arnal, E.M., Cappa, C.E. 1996, MNRAS 279, 788 Google Scholar
Arthur, S.J., Henney, W.J., Dyson, J.E. 1996, A&A 313, 897 Google Scholar
Cappa, C.E., Dubner, G.M., Rogers, C., St.-Louis, N. 1996, AJ 112, 1104 Google Scholar
Cappa de Nicolau, C.E., Niemela, V.S., Dubner, G.M., Arnal, E.M. 1988, AJ 96, 1671 Google Scholar
Chu, Y.-H. 1981, ApJ 249, 195 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chu, Y.-H. 1982, ApJ 254, 578 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chu, Y.-H. 1991, in: van der Hucht, K.A. & Hidayat, B. (eds.), Wolf-Rayet Stars Interrelations with Other Massive Stars in Galaxies, Proc. IAU Symposium No. 143 (Dordrecht: Kluwer), p. 349 Google Scholar
Chu, Y.-H., Treffers, R.R. 1981, ApJ 249, 586 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chu, Y.-H., Treffers, R.R., Kwitter, K.B. 1983, ApJS 53, 937 Google Scholar
D'Ercole, A., 1992, MNRAS 255, 572 Google Scholar
Dopita, M.A., Bell, J.F., Chu, Y.-H., Lozinskaya, T.A. 1994, ApJS 93, 455 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubner, G.M., Niemela, V.S., Purton, C.R. 1990, AJ 99, 857 Google Scholar
Dyson, J.E. 1989, in: Tenorio-Tagle, G., Moles, M. & Melnick, J. (eds.), Structure and Dynamics of the Interstellar Medium, Proc. IAU Coll. No. 120 (Berlin: Springer), p. 137 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esteban, C., Vilchez, J.M. 1992, ApJ 390, 536 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esteban, C., Vilchez, J.M., Smith, L.J., Manchado, A. 1991, A&A 244, 205 Google Scholar
Esteban, C., Vilchez, J.M., Smith, L.J., Clegg, R.E.S. 1992, A&A 259, 629 Google Scholar
Esteban, C., Smith, L.J., Vilchez, J.M., Clegg, R.E.S. 1993, A&A 272, 299 Google Scholar
García-Segura, G.S., Mac Low, M.-M., Langer, N. 1996a, A&A 305, 229 Google Scholar
García-Segura, G.S., Langer, N., Mac Low, M.-M. 1996b, A&A 316, 133 Google Scholar
Goudis, C., Meaburn, J., Whitehead, M.J. 1988, A&A 191, 341 Google Scholar
Gruendl, R., Chu, Y.-H. 1998, BAAS 30, 830 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R.M. 1991, in: van der Hucht, K.A. & Hidayat, B. (eds.), Wolf-Rayet Stars Interrelations with Other Massive Stars in Galaxies, Proc. IAU Symposium No. 143 (Dordrecht: Kluwer), p. 485 Google Scholar
Humphreys, R.M., Davidson, K. 1979, ApJ 232, 409 Google Scholar
Kastner, J., Weintraub, D. 1996, ApJ 452, 833 Google Scholar
Langer, N. 1991 A&A 248, 531 Google Scholar
Leitherer, C. 1997, in: Nota, A. & Lamers, H. (eds.), Luminous Blue Variables: Massive Stars in Transition, ASP-CS 120, 58 Google Scholar
Maeder, A. 1990, A&AS 84, 139 Google Scholar
Maeder, A., Meynet, A. 1994, A&A 287, 803 Google Scholar
Manchado, A., García-Segura, G.S., Chu, Y.-H. 1995, in: van der Hucht, K.A. & Williams, P.M. (eds.) Wolf-Rayet Stars: Binaries, Colliding Winds, Evolution, Proc. IAU Symp. No. 163 (Dordrecht: Kluwer), p. 74 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marston, A.P. 1991, ApJ 366, 81 Google Scholar
Marston, A.P. 1995, AJ 109, 1839 Google Scholar
Marston, A.P. 1996, AJ 112, 2828 Google Scholar
Marston, A.P., 1997, ApJ 475, 188 Google Scholar
Marston, A.P., Meaburn, J. 1988, MNRAS 235, 391 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marston, A.P., Chu, Y.-H., García-Segura, G.S. 1994a, ApJS 93, 229 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marston, A.P., Yocum, D.R., García-Segura, G.S., Chu, Y.-H. 1994b, ApJS 95, 151 Google Scholar
Marston, A.P., Welzmiller, J., Bransford, M., Black, J., Bergman, P. 1999a, ApJ in press Google Scholar
Marston, A.P., Nota, A., Pasquali, A., Clampin, M., Welzmiller, J., Schulte-Ladbeck, R. 1999b, in: Wolf, B., Fullerton, A.W. & Stahl, O. (eds.), Variable and Non-spherical Stellar Winds in Luminous Hot Stars, Proc. IAU Coll. No. 169, Lecture Notes in Physics in press Google Scholar
Mathis, J.S., Cassinelli, J.P., van der Hucht, K.A., Prusti, T., Wesselius, P.R., Williams, P.M. 1992, ApJ 384, 197 Google Scholar
Miller, G., Chu, Y.-H. 1993, ApJS 85, 137 Google Scholar
Nichols, J.S., Fesen, R.A. 1994, A&A 291, 283 Google Scholar
Oudmaijer, R.D., Groenewegen, M.A.T., Matthews, H.E., Blommaert, J.A.D.L., Sahu, K.C. 1996, MNRAS 280, 1062 Google Scholar
Schneps, M.H., Haschick, A.D., Wright, E.L., Barret, A.H. 1981, ApJ 243, 184 Google Scholar
Smith, L.J. 1995, in: van der Hucht, K.A. & Williams, P.M. (eds.) Wolf-Rayet Stars: Binaries, Colliding Winds, Evolution, Proc. IAU Symp. No. 163 (Dordrecht: Kluwer), p. 24 Google Scholar
St-Louis, N., Doyon, R., Chagnon, F., Nadeau, D. 1998, AJ 115, 2475 Google Scholar
Stothers, R.B., Chin, C.-w. 1996, ApJ 468, 842 Google Scholar
Van Buren, D. 1986, ApJ 306, 538 Google Scholar