Amazing Rings: Intersecting Stars Create Spectacular Gas Rings

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the formation of concentric gas rings created by the interaction of two stars with nearly intersecting orbits, specifically focusing on the WR140 star system. Participants debate the appearance of these rings, with some suggesting they resemble diffraction patterns rather than actual gas rings. Reliable sources, including Anton and various academic papers, confirm that the observed features are expected phenomena in Wolf-Rayet stars, which are rare but well-studied. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided crucial imaging data that enhances our understanding of these stellar interactions.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Wolf-Rayet stars and their characteristics
  • Familiarity with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) imaging techniques
  • Knowledge of stellar physics and gas dynamics
  • Basic comprehension of diffraction patterns in astrophysics
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the imaging techniques used by the James Webb Space Telescope
  • Study the characteristics and phenomena associated with Wolf-Rayet stars
  • Explore the impact of stellar interactions on gas ring formation
  • Examine the differences between diffraction patterns and actual astrophysical phenomena
USEFUL FOR

Astronomers, astrophysics students, and researchers interested in stellar dynamics and the imaging capabilities of modern telescopes will benefit from this discussion.

Hornbein
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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 wavelength, 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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