Near Infrared Discovery of Wolf-Rayet Stars in the Milky Way

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Scientific paper

Luminous, massive stars are tracers of recent star formation in our Galaxy; they map out the spiral arms and reveal young clusters. Given their high luminosity, massive stars could, in principle, be observed in the optical passbands across the Galaxy were it not for the presence of obscuring interstellar dust. In the near infrared the extinction is much lower, and the presence of strong emission lines allows the identification of evolved massive stars. Surveys for the evolved massive stellar population in our own Galaxy require NIR observations to be complete. We have begun an imaging program using narrow band filters on the lines of He I, He II, Br(gamma), and C IV, which are most effective at identifying massive stars in the 2 (micron) window. Here we propose to obtain follow-up spectroscopy for these emission line candidates in order to confirm their nature and derive detailed sub- types. This new sample of WR stars will allow us to investigate the late stages of stellar evolution theory, explore chemical enrichment in the inner Galaxy, and trace spiral structure.

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