Radiation-driven acceleration in the expanding WR140 dust shell.

ABSTRACT: The Wolf-Rayet (WR) binary system WR140 is a close (0.9-16.7 mas; ref. ¹) binary star consisting of an O5 primary and WC7 companion² and is known as the archetype of episodic dust-producing WRs. Dust in WR binaries is known to form in a confined stream originating from the collision of the two stellar winds, with orbital motion of the binary sculpting the large-scale dust structure into arcs as dust is swept radially outwards. It is understood that sensitive conditions required for dust production in WR140 are only met around periastron when the two stars are sufficiently close^2-4. Here we present multiepoch imagery of the circumstellar dust shell of WR140. We constructed geometric models that closely trace the expansion of the intricately structured dust p

SUBMITTER: Han Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9556302 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature