Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Wolf-Rayet stars are characterized by their immense, broad emission lines emanating from a dense, rapidly-expanding hot wind. Most of them are the He-buring descendants of the most massive stars (the O-type stars), and will likely explode as type Ib/c supernovae and leave behind a black hole. They are important for many reasons, e.g. they have the strongest winds of any known stable star; they energize and enrich the interstellar medium (with both ions and in some cases dust); they allow us to see nuclear-fused products at the surface of a star; they permit age-dating of young starbursts. However, many mysteries remain, e.g. why are the mass-loss rates so high; what is the detailed structure of their winds (whose clumps make them go bump-bump-bump in the night!); what is the role of rotation and binarity in their properties; how does dust form in some cases in such hostile environments?

Thursday, November 28th 2002, 12:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, room 305