Related papers: X-ray study of WR 48-6: A possible colliding wind …
Massive stars deeply influence their surroundings by their luminosity and the injection of kinetic energy. So far, they have mostly been studied with spatially unresolved observations, although evidence of geometrical complexity of their…
We present results from a study of the eclipsing, colliding-wind binary V444 Cyg that uses a combination of X-ray and optical spectropolarimetric methods to describe the 3-D nature of the shock and wind structure within the system. We have…
WR+O star binary systems exhibit synchrotron emission arising from relativistic electrons accelerated where the wind of the WR star and that of its massive binary companion collide - the wind-collision region (WCR). These ``colliding-wind''…
We studied the eclipsing ultraluminous X-ray source CG X-1 in the Circinus galaxy, re-examining two decades of {\it Chandra} and {\it XMM-Newton} observations. The short binary period (7.21 hr) and high luminosity ($L_{\rm X} \approx…
This study is the second part of a survey searching for large-scale spectroscopic variability in apparently single Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. In a previous paper (Paper I), we described and characterized the spectroscopic variability level of…
Recent observations reveal that the central star of the planetary nebula Abell 48 exhibits spectral features similar to massive nitrogen-sequence Wolf-Rayet stars. This raises a pertinent question, whether it is still a planetary nebula or…
We discuss the results of two XMM-Newton observations of the open cluster NGC6604 obtained in April and September 2002. We concentrate mainly on the multiple system HD167971 (O5-8V + O5-8V + (O8I)). The soft part of the EPIC spectrum of…
The spectrum of the Wolf-Rayet (WR) star WR 63 contains spectral lines of two different O stars that show regular radial velocity (RV) variations with amplitudes of ~160 and ~225 km/s on a ~4.03 d period. The light-curve shows two narrow…
Colliding-wind binaries (CWBs) constitute an emerging class of $\gamma$-ray sources powered by strong, dense winds in massive stellar systems. The most powerful of them are those binaries hosting a Wolf-Rayet (WR) star. Following the recent…
Cyg OB2 #8a is a massive O-type binary displaying strong non-thermal radio emission. Owing to the compactness of this binary, emission of non-thermal X-ray photons via inverse Compton scattering is expected. We first revised the orbital…
Gamma-ray observations of young star clusters have recently provided evidence for particle acceleration occurring at stellar wind termination shocks, fueled by the mechanical energy of stellar winds from massive stars. In this work, we…
We use WR124 (WN8h) and its associated nebula M1-67, to test theoretical non-LTE models for Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. Lyman continuum ionizing flux distributions derived from a stellar analysis of WR124, are compared with nebular properties…
Given their strong stellar winds, Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars exhibit emission line spectra that are predominantly formed in expanding atmospheric layers. The description of the wind velocity field $v(r)$ is therefore a crucial ingredient in the…
The region around the $\eta$ Car nebula has three OB associations, which contain a Wolf-Rayet star and several massive O3 stars. An early Chandra ACIS-I image was centered on $\eta$ Car and includes Trumpler 16 and part of Trumpler 14. The…
In latest years, the high sensitivity of the instruments on-board the XMM-Newton and Chandra satellites allowed us to explore the properties of the X-ray emission from hot subdwarf stars. The small but growing sample of X-ray detected hot…
We attempt to determine the driver for clumping in hot-star winds by extending the measure of the spectral variability level of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars to by far the hottest known among them, the WN2 star WR 2 and the WO2 stars WR 102 and…
Two different models have been put forward to explain the origin of the X-ray emission of the unusual X-ray source 1E 1024.0-5732/Wack 2134: a high-mass X-ray binary system (HMXB) and a colliding wind binary (CWB). We present new optical…
Most Wolf-Rayet stars (WR) of WC9 sub-type exhibit a dusty circumstellar envelope, but it is still a matter of debate how dust can form in their harsh environment. In a few cases, a pinwheel-like structure of the dusty envelope has been…
This work aims to search for the observational footprints of the interactions between the interstellar medium (ISM) and stellar winds in the Wolf-Rayet (WR) nebula NGC6888 in order to understand its ionization structure, chemical…
WR 137 (HD 192641) is a binary system consisting of a carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet star and an Oe companion star in a 13-year orbit. Near periastron, the winds of the two stars collide and form carbonaceous dust. We obtained three mid-infrared…