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The Statistical Equilibrium of H and He and the H/He Ratio in WR Stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

A.B. Underhill  and
A.K. Bhatia
A.B. Underhill
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
A.K. Bhatia
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771

Extract

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The mixed selection of strong emission lines present in the spectra of WR stars suggests that we are observing plasma with an electron temperature of the order of 105 K somewhere in the atmospheres of these rare stars. In the spectra of some WR stars emission lines of H are detected; this suggests that plasma with an electron temperature of the order of 104 K may be present also. Since the observations made in the last 30 years show that the masses, luminosities, effective temperatures, and general distribution in space of WR stars are similar to those of stars with spectral types in the range from about B2 to O9, a prime question is why are the spectra of WR stars so different from those of the B stars with which they are associated.

Type
Session 3. Non-Solar Astrophysics
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 86: Eighth International Colloquium on Ultraviolet and X-ray Spectroscopy of Astrophysical and Laboratory Plasmas , 1984 , pp. 88 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Naval Research Laboratory 1984. Publication courtesy of the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC.

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