Motion of the Colliding-wind Region in WR140

Montage of three epochs of VLBA phase-referenced imaging of the archetype WR+O star colliding-wind binary system. The bright radio emission arises from the region where the stellar winds of the two masssive stars collide. The images are superimposed on an orbit derived using 23 epochs of VLBA images, including the relative position of the two stars at the three observation epochs. The observations show that the wind-collision region is bow-shaped, as anticipated from theory. The proper motion and rotation of the wind-collision region is also clear, along with the decay of the radio emission as the two stars close in on periastron (position of closet approach).

Legacy Astronomical Images

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Legacy Astronomical Image

WR140

Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI/NSF

Sean Dougherty, Tony Beasley, Mark Claussen, Ashley Zauderer, Nick Bolingbroke

Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)

2000-01-01

continuum

X

3.6 cm

8.4 GHz

RA 20:20:27.977, Dec: 43:51:16.292 (J2000)

0.000004 x 0.000003 degrees

Contact the archivist for a high resolution tif of this image.

Galactic Sources Series

Star Forming Regions Unit