Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Puppis (Pup)  ·  Contains:  HD62658  ·  HD62735  ·  HD62800  ·  HD62910  ·  HD62990  ·  LBN 1072
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Wolf-Rayet star WR8, and a challenge, Wei-Hao Wang
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Wolf-Rayet star WR8, and a challenge

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Wolf-Rayet star WR8, and a challenge, Wei-Hao Wang
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Wolf-Rayet star WR8, and a challenge

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Description

Wolf-Rayet stars are massive stars in advanced evolution stage. They have mass outflows and strong ionization photons. So the ejected gas is often highly ionized, with strong [OIII] emission.

WR8 is a Wolf-Rayet star at Dec = -31.9 deg and is rarely imaged even in the professional literature. It has a known H-alpha outflow bubble/shell surrounded by large-scale H-alpha emission from the interstellar medium. So far there isn't a good [OIII] image. So I took deep Ha and OIII images (plus shallow RVB images) with our telescope for a collaborator (Prof You-Hua Chu, a world-famous astronomer who studies physics of interstellar medium, planetary nebula, supernova remnant, and WR stars). In this case, WR8's OIII emission is clearly detected, but it is weaker than Ha, likely because of the strong dust extinction toward this line of sight.

In the starless version (Rev.B), I feel there is an even fainter outer halo around the bright Ha/OIII bubble/shell. The possible halo is outlined with a yellow circle in the bottom OIII panel in Rev.B. There are also hints of radial streamlines going from the inner bubble/shell to the edge of the outer halo.  The same can be said for the Ha image if one uses some imagination.  Unfortunately the surrounding Ha emission is too strong and making the confirmation of such a faint halo practically almost impossible in Ha. On the other hand, in OIII, we may be able to confirm the existence of the outer halo if we integrate long enough.  With our F6.8 system, we probably will need 50hr on OIII to confirm it, or >100hr to get a good picture. Unfortunately the target is too far south. Even if we are willing to invest this much amount of time, it will be difficult to actually achieve it in a year or even two.  Here we would like to invite those who live in the south and have fast optics to challenge imaging this target, and to see if anyone can get a good OIII picture of the outer halo. If you try and get something, please let me know. I will help to inform Prof Chu about your achievement and you will share the credit when she writes a paper about this object.

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  • Final
    Wolf-Rayet star WR8, and a challenge, Wei-Hao Wang
    Original
    Wolf-Rayet star WR8, and a challenge, Wei-Hao Wang
    B

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Wolf-Rayet star WR8, and a challenge, Wei-Hao Wang