Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Feb 1996
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996a%26a...306..771r&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.306, p.771
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
70
Stars: Individual: Wr22, Stars: Wolf-Rayet, Binaries: Spectroscopic, Binaries: Eclipsing, Stars: Fundamental Parameters
Scientific paper
The results of an extensive spectroscopic campaign on the eclipsing binary WR22 are presented. A new radial velocity curve is deduced for the WN7 component, allowing us to improve the parameters of the orbit, formerly determined on the basis of photographic spectra. The high signal-to-noise ratio of our data also allows the detection of some weak absorption lines which, for the first time, can definitely be attributed to the companion. A study of their radial velocities gives a mass ratio of m_WR_/m_O_=2.78 leading to a minimum mass of 72Msun_ for the WN7 star. The companion can be classified as a "late O" (O6.5-O8.5) star with a luminosity ratio of the system q=L_WR_^y^/L_O_^y^ at 5500A of about 8. The exceptionally high mass of the WN7 star and its high hydrogen mass-fraction suggest that WR22 is at the beginning of its Wolf-Rayet evolution. As a matter of fact, with such a high mass, WR22 most probably is still a hydrogen burning object. Therefore, the WN7 component is much closer to a main sequence O star with a "Wolf-Rayet clothing" than to the other members of the Wolf-Rayet family, which are rather highly evolved He-burning descendants of massive progenitors.
Gosset Eric
Hutsemékers Damien
Magain Pierre
Rauw Gregor
Rochowicz Krzysztof
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