A close encounter of the massive kind
We have used (i) Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph spectroscopy, (ii) ground-based Precision Integrated-Optics Near-infrared Imaging ExpeRiment/Very Large Telescope long-baseline interferometry, and (iii) ground-based spectroscopy fro...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2017 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/214896 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/214896 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | ephemerides Binaries: visual stars: individual: HD 93 129 Aa,Ab stars: kinematics and dynamics: stars: winds, outflows X-ray stars |
| Sumario: | We have used (i) Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph spectroscopy, (ii) ground-based Precision Integrated-Optics Near-infrared Imaging ExpeRiment/Very Large Telescope long-baseline interferometry, and (iii) ground-based spectroscopy from different instruments to study the orbit of the extreme multiple system HD 93 129 Aa,Ab, which is composed of (at least) two very massive stars in a long-period orbit with e > 0.92, which will pass through periastron in 2017/2018. In several ways, the system is an ¿ Car precursor. Around the time of periastron passage, the two very strong winds will collide and generate an outburst of non-thermal hard X-ray emission without precedent in an O+O binary since astronomers have been able to observe above Earth's atmosphere. A coordinated multiwavelength monitoring in the next two years will enable a breakthrough understanding of the wind interactions in such extreme close encounters. Furthermore, we have found evidence that HD 93 129 Aa may be a binary system itself. In that case, we could witness a three-body interaction which may yield a runaway star or a stellar collision close to or shortly after the periastron passage. Either of those outcomes would be unprecedented, as they are predicted to be low-frequency events in the Milky Way. |
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