We present spectroscopic analysis of the luminous X-ray source Melnick 33Na (Mk 33Na, HSH95 16) in the LMC 30 Doradus region (Tarantula Nebula), utilising new time-series VLT/UVES spectroscopy. We confirm Mk 33Na as a double-lined O-type spectroscopic binary with a mass ratio q=0.63±0.02, e=0.33±0.01 and orbital period of 18.3±0.1 days, supporting the favoured period from X-ray observations obtained via the Tarantula -- Revealed by X-rays (T-ReX) survey. Disentangled spectra of each component provide spectral types of OC2.5 If* and O4 V for the primary and secondary respectively - unusually for an O supergiant the primary exhibits strong CIV 4658 emission and weak NV 4603-20, justifying the OC classification. Spectroscopic analysis favours extreme physical properties for the primary (Teff=50 kK, logL/L⊙=6.15) with system components of M1=83±19M⊙ and M2=48±11M⊙ obtained from evolutionary models, which can be reconciled with results from our orbital analysis (e.g. M1sin3i=20.0±1.2M⊙) if the system inclination is ∼38∘ and it has an age of 0.9 to 1.6 Myr. This establishes Mk 33Na as one of the highest mass binary systems in the LMC, alongside other X-ray luminous early-type binaries Mk34 (WN5h+WN5h), R144 (WN5/6h+WN6/7h) and especially R139 (O6.5\,Iafc+O6\,Iaf).
@article{arxiv.2112.00022,
title = {Melnick 33Na: a very massive colliding wind binary system in 30 Doradus},
author = {Joachim M. Bestenlehner and Paul A. Crowther and Patrick S. Broos and Andrew M. T. Pollock and Leisa K. Townsley},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.00022},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 16 pages and 14 figures plus supplementary material