Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars are massive but rare, making stars like our sun look tiny. They can be hundreds of times more massive, millions of times brighter, and tens of thousands of degrees hotter. In addition to being massive, WR stars are losing their mass at a very high rate.
WR stars are identified by their unusual spectra, showing prominent broad emission lines of ionised helium and highly ionised nitrogen or carbon. This was first discovered by astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet in 1867. Wolf- Rayet stars are thought to end their lives spectacularly as either a Type Ib or Type Ic supernova explosion.
The massive radiation, heat and gas spewed out by these WR stars create some of the most interesting nebulae in the night sky. Many WR stars have associated bubble nebulosity, centered around the WR star. In the poster, I have identified the designation and location of each nebula WR star.
These stars have relatively brief lifetimes and therefore they are rare. We have identified about 200 in our galaxy to date. The 8 objects and 9 WR stars shown on the poster are the most interesting that I have found. Many people say that NGC 7635 (the Bubble Nebula) is also a WR nebulae, but I do not believe that to be the case.
Some planetary nebulae have WR stars as their progenitor, but these are not considered to be WR nebulae in the classic sense and I have not included them in the poster.
The technical data for the objects on the poster is shown in Revision D.
Each of the objects of the poster has previously been uploaded and described individually on Astrobin. They all reside in my
Astrobin Wolf-Rayet Collection.
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