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An Interstellar Conduction Front Within a Wolf-Rayet Ring Nebula Observed with the GHRS

Bram Boroson·Richard McCray·Christina Oelfke Clark·Jonathan Slavin·Mordecai-Mark Mac Low·You-Hua Chu·Dave Van Buren
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Abstract

With the High Resolution Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope we obtained high signal-to-noise (S/N > 200 - 600 per 17 km/s resolution element) spectra of narrow absorption lines toward the Wolf-Rayet star HD 50896. The ring nebula S308 that surrounds this star is thought to be caused by a pressure-driven bubble bounded by circumstellar gas (most likely from a red supergiant or luminous blue variable progenitor) pushed aside by a strong stellar wind. Our observation has shown for the first time that blueshifted (approximately 70 km/s relative to the star) absorption components of C IV and N V arise in a conduction front between the hot interior of the bubble and the cold shell of swept-up material. These lines set limits on models of the conduction front. Nitrogen in the shell appears to be overabundant by a factor ~10. The P Cygni profiles of N V and C IV are variable, possibly due to a suspected binary companion to HD 50896.

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Bram Boroson, Richard McCray, Christina Oelfke Clark, Jonathan Slavin, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, You-Hua Chu, Dave Van Buren. 1996-10-23. An Interstellar Conduction Front Within a Wolf-Rayet Ring Nebula Observed with the GHRS. https://doi.org/10.1086/303799

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