The Star Newsletter
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THE HOT STAR NEWSLETTER ? An electronic publication dedicated to A, B, O, Of, LBV and Wolf-Rayet stars and related phenomena in galaxies No. 40 May 1998 editor: Philippe Eenens http://www.astro.ugto.mx/∼eenens/hot/ [email protected] http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/∼hsn/index.html Contents of this newsletter Editorial ....................................................................1 Letter to the editor . 2 Meetings ....................................................................2 Abstracts of 9 accepted papers . 3 Abstracts of 2 proceedings papers . 9 Abstract of 1 dissertation thesis . 10 Book ......................................................................12 From the editor This issue starts with a letter from Tony Moffat to the editor and a suggestion for a special session at the next AAS meeting. We received quite a few abstracts, including one of an interesting thesis. We close this issue with the table of contents of the proceedings of the recent Munich workshop. In the Hot Stars www pages a link was added to the recently published paper on the binary properties of Galactic O-type stars (Mason et al. 1998, AJ, 115, 821), http://www.chara.gsu.edu/DoubleStars/Ostars/ostars.html and its Table 1, which lists information on the spectroscopic and astrometric binary propoerties of over 200 O stars. The authors plan to keep this Table current as new results come in. 1 Letter to the editor Dear Philippe: This being the 4th anniversary of the Hot Star Newsletter, it is a good time to thank you for the splendid job you have been doing, not only in having created the HSN, but also in making it grow and serve an ever more active community. No doubt, the good health of the HSN reflects also the strength of the HS community. I also welcome your new initiatives.... It would also be good for the HS community if more HS specialists would apply for time on big telescopes, groundbased or in space. More and more, it seems that TAC panels are being created in several pre-selected areas, one being ”Hot Stars”. What’s more, the time allocated to a HS panel (as for any other panel) is normally proportional to the amount of time requested. So, if more apply, they’ll get more, too! There’s nothing wrong with good healthy competition amongst ourselves (avoided to some extent by working in teams). There’s nowhere that this might apply more, than for the Hubble Space Telescope. During the last HST competition (NICMOS extended cycle 7, Nov. 1997, when I had the dubious honour of chairing the HS panel), the relative number of HS proposals was down (about half of most other panels), so as a result, the HS community naturally got (proportionately) less time. I hope this was merely an ”IR glitch” and will change in the future, so that we can retain (regain?) our vitality. Amiti´es, Tony Moffat P.S. Just a little remark about the scope of the HSN. I would say we should include CSPN when relevant, but normally not. I would not eliminate pre-main sequence stars that are massive! Meetings AAS Session proposal: “Shells in the Global ISM” As the stellar populations in galaxies return mass and energy to the ISM, interstellar shells are ev- idently a principal interface structure. In recent years, feedback processes, especially from massive stars, have been recognized as an essential influence on galaxy formation and evolution. However, there have been no meetings on shells as a phenomenon in their own right. We therefore propose a one-day Topical Session at the 1999 June meeting of the AAS in Chicago, on this subject. A great variety of objects can be classified as shells: supergiant shells (kpc-scale); OB superbubbles (10s–100s of pc); supernova remnants; massive-star circumstellar bubbles from OB, WR, LBV, and RSG stars; PNe; PMS outflows; impacts from high-velocity clouds; bow shocks; and other objects. Clearly, these cannot be comprehensively addressed in a one-day workshop. We therefore request input from the community in narrowing the focus. Our initial suggestion is a view toward the influence of shells in the global ISM. How do shells mediate and/or regulate the interaction of hot and cool gas, and the dispersion of heavy elements? What are the relative roles of the different types of shells in the global ISM of various galactic types? What is the origin of supergiant shells? The following is a preliminary list of possible relevant topics: • shell evolution—early, intermediate, late; timescales 2 • energy budget, heating/cooling • energy sources, relation to stellar populations • hot/cool gas interaction, role in multi-phase ISM • relation to/effect on different modes of star formation • ISM structure: determinant and probe, interactions • ISM enrichment, mixing Is there enough interest in these sorts of subjects to warrant a Topical Session at the AAS? Please let us know if you favor this concept. We’d also like to know which topics have the widest interest, as well as any additional comments or suggestions on the scientific content. What are the most pressing related issues and why? Thanks for your input, Sally Oey [email protected] Accepted Papers Compact HII regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud observed by ISO F. Comer´on1 and P. Claes2 1 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany 2 ESTEC, European Space Agency, NL 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands We present ISOCAM observations of five fields in the Large Magellanic Cloud centered on IRAS point sources with colors of ultracompact HII regions. Three bright sources of parsec or subparsec size, with luminosities consistent with being embedded O stars, are detected at 15 µm in two fields belonging to the HII region N 159. Using published high resolution radio observations, it is found that two of these sources may be ultracompact HII regions with a turnover frequency above 2.4 GHz, while the other is identified with a known compact HII region. If their nature as true ultracompact HII regions is confirmed by follow-up observations, these objects can provide a first sample useful for future studies of early massive star evolution in a low metallicity environment. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics (Letters) Preprints from [email protected] or on the web at http://www.eso.org/∼fcomeron/publicat.html The relationship between the WR classification and stellar models. II. The WN stars without hydrogen. Lindsey F. Smith1 and A. Maeder2 1 University of Sydney, Chatterton Astronomy Department, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 2 Observatoire de Gen`eve, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland We consider the relationships between the classification parameters of WN stars in the new 3-dimensional classification of Smith et al. (1996) and the corresponding and related parameters that define stellar 3 atmosphere models. Specifically, we consider: FWHM of HeII 4686 vs. v∞; hydrogen content by direct inspection vs. hydrogen content by modelling and vs. colour (b–v)0; ionisation subclass and Mv vs. effective temperature. From these data we argue that the WN b and only the WN b stars (i.e. stars with EW 5411 > 40 A˚ or FWHM 4686 > 30 A)˚ are entirely free of hydrogen. For the WN b stars, we consider the relationships of EW 5411 and FWHM 4686 to the derived tem- perature T∗; the mass loss rate; and the surface mass flux. It appears that, to first approximation, the stars are a one–parameter family and the spectral classification criteria are sufficient to give an indication of the intrinsic colour, absolute magnitude (not very accurately), effective temperature T∗ and terminal velocity. Theoretical models suggest that the critical parameter defining most of the properties of a WN b star is its present mass. However, the behaviour of FWHM 4686 suggests the presence of a second parameter that affects the mass loss rate and terminal velocity of the wind. We suggest that the second parameter may be either (or a combination of) the internal mean molecular weight or the rotation rate of the star. We further compare the relationships predicted by evolutionary models with those found for observed stars (using atmosphere models), highlighting the present difficulties in these comparisons. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics Main Journal Preprints from [email protected] A Multi-Wavelength Campaign on γ Cas. II. The Case for Co-rotating, Circumstellar Clouds Myron A. Smith1, Richard D. Robinson2, and Artie P. Hatzes3 1STScI/CSC, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr. Baltimore, MD 21218; Email: [email protected] 2 Catholic Universty of America, and LASP, Goddard Space Flight Center 3 Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin Simultaneous X-ray/UV observations over a full day on 14–15 March 1996 have been made of the prototypical B0.5e star γ Cas using the RXTE satellite and the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The GHRS spectra, taken in the region of the Si IV λλ1394–1403 doublet, also permitted the construction of an extremely precise light curve from a nearby “pseudo-continuum” region. The continuum UV and X-ray light curves reveal a pair of X-ray maxima ∼10 hours apart which coincide in time with UV continuum flux “dips” of ∼1%. In Paper I of this series we attributed the long-term X-ray variations to magnetic activity sites on the star’s surface which undergo rotational modulation on a ∼1.125 day period. In the current study we find that flux and color curves generated from a 33-hour sequence of IUE echellograms obtained in January 1996 display dip features similar to those in the GHRS data. Comparing the timings of the continuum flux dips and the Si IV line strength variations in both the GHRS and IUE datasets gives a slightly revised period of 1.123 days for both the UV and X-ray activities.