WR 20a is an eclipsing binary star belonging to or recently (0.5 millions years before present) ejected from the young, massive cluster Westerlund 2.[8] It was discovered in 2004 to be one of the most massive binary systems known, for which the masses of the components have been accurately measured.[7]
Star in the constellation Carina
WR 20a
WR 20a (circled) near Westerlund 2 Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team
Each star in the system has about eighty times the mass of the Sun.[7][9] It is not clear why this system is located away from the center of the cluster. It is possible that the system was formed in the core, but that it was ejected by dynamical interactions.
A visual band light curve for WR 20a (V712 Carinae), adapted from Kochanek et al. (2017)[10]
Every 3.6 days the two stars in this system revolve around each other. Although the stars are in a very tight orbit, both stars in the system are detached.[11] The two stars eclipse each other on each orbit, producing a drop in brightness of about 0.4 magnitudes. The brightness is also continuously variable outside the eclipses due to the distorted shapes of the two stars.[9] The primary and secondary minima are almost the same depth since the size and temperature of each star is almost identical.[2]
It is expected that within a million years the two will expand and come into contact. A large nitrogen abundance has been measured on the surface of the stars,[2] about six times the abundance of nitrogen measured in the sun. This nitrogen is probably produced in deeper layers of the star and pushed towards the surface by rotational mixing.
A collision between the two winds of the systems has been detected in the visible as well as in X-rays.[2][12] The X-ray emitting region is quite extended since it does not suffer from any eclipse.
References
Cutri, Roc M.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Van Dyk, Schuyler D.; Beichman, Charles A.; Carpenter, John M.; Chester, Thomas; Cambresy, Laurent; Evans, Tracey E.; Fowler, John W.; Gizis, John E.; Howard, Elizabeth V.; Huchra, John P.; Jarrett, Thomas H.; Kopan, Eugene L.; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Light, Robert M.; Marsh, Kenneth A.; McCallon, Howard L.; Schneider, Stephen E.; Stiening, Rae; Sykes, Matthew J.; Weinberg, Martin D.; Wheaton, William A.; Wheelock, Sherry L.; Zacarias, N. (2003). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: 2MASS All-Sky Catalog of Point Sources (Cutri+ 2003)". CDS/ADC Collection of Electronic Catalogues. 2246: II/246. Bibcode:2003yCat.2246....0C.
Roman-Lopes, A. (2013). "An O2 If*/WN6 star caught in the act in a compact H II region in the starburst cluster NGC 3603". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 433 (1): 712–718. arXiv:1305.0851. Bibcode:2013MNRAS.433..712R. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt762. S2CID118367798.
Samus, N. N.; Durlevich, O. V.; etal. (2009). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus+ 2007-2013)". VizieR On-line Data Catalog: B/GCVS. Originally Published in: 2009yCat....102025S. 1. Bibcode:2009yCat....102025S.
Unlocking Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with Gaia DR2 II: Cluster and Association membership, 2020, arXiv:2005.02533
Bonanos, A. Z.; Stanek, K. Z.; Udalski, A.; Wyrzykowski, L.; Żebruń, K.; Kubiak, M.; Szymański, M. K.; Szewczyk, O.; Pietrzyński, G.; Soszyński, I. (2004). "WR 20a is an Eclipsing Binary: Accurate Determination of Parameters for an Extremely Massive Wolf-Rayet System". The Astrophysical Journal. 611 (1): L33–L36. arXiv:astro-ph/0405338. Bibcode:2004ApJ...611L..33B. doi:10.1086/423671. S2CID119479873.
Naze; etal. (1 May 2008). "Chandra monitoring of the very massive binary WR20a and the young massive cluster Westerlund 2". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 483 (1): 171–182. arXiv:0801.0647. Bibcode:2008A&A...483..171N. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20078851. S2CID17739235.
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