Astronomy:Colliding-wind binary

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Short description: Binary star system in which two massive stars emit powerful stellar winds

A colliding-wind binary is a binary star system in which the two members are massive stars that emit powerful, radiatively-driven stellar winds. The location where these two winds collide produces a strong shock front that can cause radio, X-ray and possibly synchrotron radiation emission.[1] Wind compression in the bow shock region between the two stellar winds allows dust formation. When this dust streams away from the orbiting pair, it can form a pinwheel nebula of spiraling dust. Such pinwheels have been observed in the Quintuplet Cluster[2]

A composite optical/x-ray image of Eta Carinae and its surrounding nebula taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. The blue inner part of the nebula is optical emission, powered by the collision of winds from Eta Carinae and its unseen companion.[3] Credit: Chandra Science Center and NASA.

The archetype of such a colliding-wind binary system is WR 140 (HD 193793), which consists of a 20 solar mass (M☉) Wolf-Rayet star orbiting about a 50 M☉, spectral class O4-5 main sequence star every 7.9 years. The high orbital eccentricity of the pair allows astronomers to observe changes in the colliding wind region as their separation varies.[4][5] Another prominent example of a colliding-wind binary is thought to be Eta Carinae, one of the most luminous objects in the Milky Way galaxy.[6] The first colliding-wind binary to be detected in the X-ray band outside the Milky Way galaxy was HD 5980, located in the Small Magellanic Cloud.[7]

See also


References

  1. ↑ Volpi, Delia; Blomme, Ronny; De Becker, Michael; Rauw, Gregor (December 2010). "Non-thermal radio emission from colliding-wind binaries: modelling Cyg OB2 No. 8A and No. 9". Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 6: 638–639. doi:10.1017/S1743921311011689. Bibcode: 2011IAUS..272..638V. 
  2. ↑ Tuthill, Peter (August 18, 2006). "Pinwheels in the Quintuplet Cluster". Science 313 (5789): 935. doi:10.1126/science.1128731. PMID 16917053. Bibcode: 2006Sci...313..935T. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1128731. Retrieved 2011-01-14. 
  3. ↑ "Eta Carinae: New View of a Doomed Star". Chandra. June 20, 2007. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/etacar/. Retrieved 2011-01-18. 
  4. ↑ Dougherty, S. M.; Trenton, V.; Beasley, A. J. (November 2010). "The orbit and distance of WR140". Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège 80: 658. Bibcode: 2011BSRSL..80..658D. 
  5. ↑ Finley, Dave (April 11, 2005). "Scientists Track Collision of Powerful Stellar Winds". National Radio Astronomy Observatory. http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2005/wr140/. Retrieved 2011-01-14. 
  6. ↑ Groh, J. H.; Madura, T. I.; Owocki, S. P.; Hillier, D. J.; Weigelt, G. (June 2010). "Is Eta Carinae a Fast Rotator, and How Much Does the Companion Influence the Inner Wind Structure?". The Astrophysical Journal Letters 716 (2): L223–L228. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/716/2/L223. Bibcode: 2010ApJ...716L.223G. 
  7. ↑ Naeye, Bob (February 16, 2007). "First X-Ray Detection of a Colliding-Wind Binary Beyond Milky Way". NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center. 




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