WR 120

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WR 120
V462SctLightCurve.png
A near-infrared (2.033 micron) light curve for V462 Scuti, adapted from Chené and St-Louis (2007). [1] The left-most point shows the 3 sigma error bar.
Observation data
Epoch J2000       Equinox J2000
Constellation Scutum
Right ascension 18h 41m 00.86698s [2]
Declination −4° 26′ 14.47345″ [2]
Apparent magnitude  (V)11.93 [3]
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage Wolf-Rayet
Spectral type WN7w [4] + WN3/4 [5]
U−B color index 0.13 [6]
B−V color index 1.04 [6]
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ)RA: −0.489 [7]   mas/yr
Dec.: −2.524 [7]   mas/yr
Parallax (π)0.3246 ± 0.0541  mas [7]
Distance approx. 10,000  ly
(approx. 3,100  pc)
Absolute magnitude  (MV)−3.81 [4]
Details
Mass 7 [4]   M☉
Radius 3.78 [4]   R☉
Luminosity 83,200 [4]   L☉
Temperature 50,100 [4]   K
Other designations
MR  89, V462  Scuti, 2MASS  J18410086-0426145
Database references
SIMBAD data

WR 120 is a binary containing two Wolf-Rayet stars in the constellation of Scutum, around 10,000 light years away. The primary is a hydrogen-free weak-lined WN7 star, the secondary is a hydrogen-free WN3 or 4 star, and the system is a possible member of the cluster Dolidze 33. [8] From our point of view, WR 120 is reddened by 4.82 magnitudes, and it has the variable designation of V462 Scuti. [9]

Contents

Properties

Analysis of the primary's spectrum with PoWR shows that it has a temperature of around 50,000 Kelvins, and is losing mass at a rate of 10−4.9 M☉/year, or 1 solar mass every 80,000 years, which is being carried away from the surface at a speed of 1,225 kilometres per second. [4] Taking its close distance into account, WR 120 A's luminosity turns out to be a mere 83,200  L☉, which would make it one of the dimmest WN stars known, and one of the only WN stars with a luminosity below 100,000  L☉. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann Law, a radius of 3.78 R☉ is derived, and a "transformed" radius at an optical depth of 2/3, more comparable to other types of stars, is at about 6 R☉. Using the WR Luminosity-Mass ratio, WR 120 may have a mass of just 7 M☉, one of the lowest masses of any WR star. WR 120 A’s visual luminosity is 2,858  L☉, which is also on the lower end of WR visual luminosities. [4]

WR 120 is thought to be a member of Dolidze 33, an open cluster nearly 3,000 pc away. [8]

Binarity

In 2021, WR 120 was revealed to be a binary star. Previously, it was thought to be a single WR star, but it is in fact a rare double Wolf-Rayet star. The companion (a WN3/4 WR star) is located approximately 1700 AU from the primary WN7 WR, and is about 2.1 magnitudes fainter than WR 120.

Related Research Articles

WR 22 Star in the constellation Carina

WR 22, also known as V429 Carinae or HR 4188, is an eclipsing binary star system in the constellation Carina. The system contains a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star that is one of the most massive and most luminous stars known, and is also a bright X-ray source due to colliding winds with a less massive O class companion. Its eclipsing nature and apparent magnitude make it very useful for constraining the properties of luminous hydrogen-rich WR stars.

WR 124 Star in the constellation Sagitta

WR 124 is a Wolf–Rayet star in the constellation of Sagitta surrounded by a ring nebula of expelled material known as M1-67. It is one of the fastest runaway stars in the Milky Way with a radial velocity around 200 km/s. It was discovered by Paul W. Merrill in 1938, identified as a high-velocity Wolf–Rayet star. It is listed in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars as QR Sagittae with a range of 0.08 magnitudes.

WR 46 Star in the constellation Crux

WR 46 is a Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation of the Southern Cross of apparent magnitude +10.8. It is located at 55 arcmin north of Theta2 Crucis. The star is a member of the distant stellar association OB4 Cru, and is around 2,900 parsecs or 9,300 light years from the Solar System.

WR 25 Star in the constellation Carina

WR 25 is a binary star system in the turbulent star-forming region the Carina Nebula, about 6,800 light-years from Earth. It contains a Wolf-Rayet star and a hot luminous companion and is a member of the Trumpler 16 cluster. The name comes from the Catalogue of Galactic Wolf–Rayet Stars.

WR 148 Spectroscopic binary in the constellation of Cygnus

WR 148 is a spectroscopic binary in the constellation Cygnus. The primary star is a Wolf–Rayet star and one of the most luminous stars known. The secondary has been suspected of being a stellar-mass black hole but may be a class O main sequence star.

WR 156 is a young massive and luminous Wolf–Rayet star in the constellation of Cepheus. Although it shows a WR spectrum, it is thought to be a young star still fusing hydrogen in its core.

WR 20a Star in the constellation Carina

WR 20a is an eclipsing binary star belonging to or recently ejected from the young, massive cluster Westerlund 2. It was discovered in 2004 to be one of the most massive binary systems known, for which the masses of the components have been accurately measured.

WR 114 is a Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation of Scutum. It is an early type star of the carbon sequence (WCE) classified as WC5.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WR 93b</span> Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation of Cygnus

WR 93b is a Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation Scorpius, an extremely rare star on the WO oxygen sequence. It appears near NGC 6357 in the tail of the scorpion.

WR 30a Massive spectroscopic binary star in the constellation Carina

WR 30a is a massive spectroscopic binary in the constellation Carina. The primary is an extremely rare star on the WO oxygen sequence and the secondary a massive class O star. It appears near the Carina Nebula but is much further away.

WR 137 Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation of Cygnus

WR 137 is a variable Wolf-Rayet star located around 6,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus.

WR 1 is a Wolf-Rayet star located around 10,300 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It is only slightly more than twice the size of the sun, but due to a temperature over 100,000 K it is over 758,000 times as luminous as the sun.

WR 3 is a Wolf-Rayet star located around 9,500 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia.

WR 9 Star in the constellation Puppis

WR 9 is a spectroscopic binary in the constellation Puppis consisting of a Wolf-Rayet star and a class O star. It is around 12,000 light years away.

HD 151932 Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation of Scorpius

HD 151932, also known as WR 78, is a Wolf-Rayet star located in the constellation Scorpius, close to the galactic plane. Its distance is around 1,300 parsecs away from the Earth. Despite being a blue-colored Wolf-Rayet star, it is extremely reddened by interstellar extinction, so its apparent magnitude is brighter for longer-wavelength passbands. HD 151932 lies about 22′ west of the open cluster NGC 6231, the center of the OB association Scorpius OB1; it is not clear whether it is a part of the association or not. With an apparent magnitude of about 6.5, it is one of the few Wolf-Rayet stars that can be seen with the naked eye.

WR 133

WR 133 is a visually moderately bright Wolf-Rayet star. It is a spectroscopic binary system containing a Wolf-Rayet primary and a class O supergiant secondary. It is in the constellation of Cygnus, lying in the sky at the centre of the triangle formed by β and γ Cygni, near η Cygni. It is the brightest member of the sparse open cluster NGC 6871.

WR 128 Star in the constellation Sagitta

WR 128 is a Wolf–Rayet star located about 9,500 light years away in the constellation of Sagitta. A member of the WN class, WR 128's spectrum resembles that of a H-free WN4 star, but hydrogen is clearly present in the star, making it the only known hydrogen-rich WN4 star in the galaxy. However, similar H-rich very early WN stars can be found in the LMC and especially in the SMC, but the only other galactic examples of this are WR 3 and WR 152.

WR 138a is a Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation Cygnus. It is of a very late spectral type of WN9h. The WR is also at the centre of a ring nebula and is a runaway.

HD 326823, also known as V1104 Scorpii, is a binary star containing a unique emission-line star, which is in the midst of transitioning to a nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet star, as well as being a candidate Luminous blue variable, located 4,142 light years away in the constellation of Scorpius. The primary is very evolved, because it is composed of almost entirely helium, and only 3% of it is still hydrogen, and it has lost most of its mass to the now-very-massive secondary. The underlying mechanisms and mass transfers in the system are comparable to other W Serpentis systems, such as Beta Lyrae and RY Scuti.

Abell 48

Abell 48 is a planetary nebula likely located around 14,000 light years away in the constellation of Aquila. It is noteworthy among planetary nebulae for hosting a rare WN-type Wolf-Rayet-type central star, a [WN4]-type star, which was once thought to be a bona-fide Wolf-Rayet star, and received the name WR 120-6. The nebula is made up of two rings surrounding the central star, and is heavily reddened, with an E(B-V) value of 2.14 and a visual extinction of 6.634 magnitudes, which is why it appears so dim.

References

  1. ↑ Chené, André-Nicolas (2007). "The First Determination of the Rotation Rates of Wolf-Rayet Stars". Massive Stars as Cosmic Engines, Proceedings IAU Symposium. 250: 139–144. doi: 10.1017/S1743921308020425 .
  2. 1 2 Gaia Collaboration (2018-04-01). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Gaia DR2 (Gaia Collaboration, 2018)". VizieR Online Data Catalog. 1345. Bibcode:2018yCat.1345....0G.
  3. ↑ Zacharias, N. (2012). "The fourth US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC4)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog. Bibcode:2012yCat.1322....0Z.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Hamann, W.-R.; Gräfener, G.; Liermann, A.; Hainich, R.; Sander, A. A. C.; Shenar, T.; Ramachandran, V.; Todt, H.; Oskinova, L. M. (2019-05-01). "The Galactic WN stars revisited. Impact of Gaia distances on fundamental stellar parameters". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 625: A57. arXiv: 1904.04687 . Bibcode:2019A&A...625A..57H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201834850. ISSN   0004-6361. S2CID   104292503.
  5. ↑ Shara, Michael M.; Howell, Steve B.; Furlan, Elise; Gnilka, Crystal L.; Moffat, Anthony F. J.; Scott, Nicholas J.; Zurek, David (2022-01-01). "A speckle-imaging search for close and very faint companions to the nearest and brightest Wolf-Rayet stars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 509 (2): 2897–2907. arXiv: 2109.06975 . Bibcode:2022MNRAS.509.2897S. doi:10.1093/mnras/stab2666. ISSN   0035-8711.
  6. 1 2 Ducati, J. R. (2002). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: Catalogue of Stellar Photometry in Johnson's 11-color system". VizieR Online Data Catalog. 2237. Bibcode:2002yCat.2237....0D.
  7. 1 2 3 Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2021). "Gaia Early Data Release 3: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics . 649: A1. arXiv: 2012.01533 . Bibcode:2021A&A...649A...1G. doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202039657 . S2CID   227254300. (Erratum:  doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039657e). Gaia EDR3 record for this source at VizieR.
  8. 1 2 Rate, Gemma; Crowther, Paul A.; Parker, Richard J. (2020-06-01). "Unlocking Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with Gaia DR2 - II. Cluster and association membership". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 495 (1): 1209–1226. arXiv: 2005.02533 . Bibcode:2020MNRAS.495.1209R. doi:10.1093/mnras/staa1290. ISSN   0035-8711.
  9. ↑ 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.
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