B Amazing Rings: Intersecting Stars Create Spectacular Gas Rings

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Concentric gas rings are formed by two stars with nearly intersecting orbits, a phenomenon particularly observed in WR140. Some participants in the discussion suggest that the observed patterns may resemble diffraction artifacts rather than actual rings. WR140 is highlighted as a significant case study, with expectations of such features being confirmed through advanced imaging techniques like those of the James Webb Space Telescope. The rarity of Wolf-Rayet stars contributes to the uniqueness of these observations, as they are not commonly encountered. Overall, the conversation emphasizes the importance of advanced observational technology in understanding complex stellar phenomena.
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Two stars with orbits that almost intersect create concentric rings of gas.
 
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Are you sure? This looks a lot like diffraction to me.

Sometimes a red dwarf is just a sausage.
 
Vanadium 50 said:
Are you sure? This looks a lot like diffraction to me.

Sometimes a red dwarf is just a sausage.
Anton is a serious and reliable source.
 
Those rings still look a lot like diffraction to me.
 
https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0202315 (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/340005)

WR140 is interesting to study because of this feature, it is not like they just randomally observed that star with JWST and saw something crazy and new. This was expected to be seen https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/videos/2020/57/1297-Video?news=true (shows a cute animation)

Even more info about WR140: https://www.roe.ac.uk/~pmw/Wr140int.htm

The radial spikes however, are an artefact on JWST imaging
 
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But that paper doesn't show the regulalrly spaced rings.
 
Vanadium 50 said:
But that paper doesn't show the regulalrly spaced rings.
The one from 2002? No because one did not have the equipment to take such images back then on WR140, but one understood its features. It is a well known phenomena, but rare (because WR stars are rare). When I took course "stellar physics" in 2007, the teacher had a seminar for grad students about WR stars which he invented us mere mortal undergrads to attend "just for fun". I think I was the only undergrad student who attendend.

Here is a paper about the WR104 star
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230919834_The_Prototype_Colliding-Wind_Pinwheel_WR_104
1660456823114.png

diagram:
1660456905732.png

image(s) from the Keck Observatory
https://stories.scienceinpublic.com.au/stories-of-astronomy-2012/keck-telescope/
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~gekko/pinwheel.html
"The technique will be used on NASA’s successor to the Hubble Space Telescope: the James Webb Space Telescope"
1660456959145.png


Here is WR112
https://webarchive.gemini.edu/media/pr_images/final-wide-shot.jpg (by Gemini observatory)
its pattern is more compliacted because its motion is not perpendicular to our line of sight
https://scitechdaily.com/evolved-bi...of-dusty-embers-from-a-massive-stellar-forge/

Note that this is IR wavelenght, in order to get pictures we can see we have to perform imageprocessing. This is a guy who has made such pic for WR140 using JWST data
nyj5wzpydie91.png
zoomed in:
1660459956551.png

does not look like diffraction to me.
 
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