July 11-15, 2011
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Abstract

Discovery of a new Wolf-Rayet star using SAGE-LMC

Vasilii V. Gvaramadze (Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Russia)

A.-N. Chené (U de Concepción - U de Valparaíso, Chile), A. Y. Kniazev (South African Astronomical Observatory, SA), O. Schnurr (Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, Germany)

We report the first-ever discovery of an extragalactic Wolf–Rayet (WR) star with Spitzer. The new WR star in the Large Magellanic Cloud was revealed via detection of its circumstellar nebula using the 24 micron images obtained in the framework of the Spitzer Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (SAGE-LMC). Subsequent spectroscopic observations with Gemini South showed that the central point source associated with the nebula is a WN3 star. We interpret the lopsided appearance of the circumstellar nebula as an indication that the WR star is a runaway and use this interpretation to identify a possible parent cluster for the star.

Mode of presentation: poster