Two new papers explain the unique, starry phenomena.
, but the gusts from a Wolf-Rayt star are more like a hurricane. Some of the elements in the wind condense out as soot, which remains hot enough to glow bright when captured using infrared cameras like those on the JWST. The telescopes can follow their flow.
Because the two stars are in elliptical orbit rather than a circular orbit, dust production turns on and off as WR140’s binary companion gets closer to it. Using data collected from other telescopes since 2006, Tuthill and his former student Yinuo Han created a 3D model of the dust plume’s geometry.
“It’s hard to see starlight causing acceleration because the force fades with distance, and other forces quickly take over,” Han said. “To witness acceleration at the level that it becomes measurable, the material needs to be reasonably close to the star or the source of the radiation pressure needs to be extra strong. WR140 is a binary star whose ferocious radiation field supercharges these effects, placing them within reach of our high-precision data.
With JWST now in operation, researchers will be able to learn much more about WR140 and similar systems. “The Webb telescope offers new extremes of stability and sensitivity,” Ryan Lau, assistant astronomer at the U.S. National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory and lead author of the
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