Skip to main content
Log in

2MASS and WISE data analysis of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Astrophysics and Space Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We collected almost all Galactic Wolf-Rayet (hereafter WR) stars found so far from the literature. 578 WR stars are gathered in this paper. 2MASS counterparts with good quality magnitudes in all JHK bands are listed for 364 WR stars. In addition, WISE counterparts for these sources are also identified. It is found that free-free emission is the main dominant source for the infrared excess in most WR stars up to 3.4 μm. However at the longer wavelengths the thermal radiation is dominant. In addition, WR stars in Clusters of the Galactic center region have the strong infrared excess in the near infrared due to the dust thermal emission from the strong star forming activity in the Galactic center region. For some WR stars with the WC spectral type, in particular, with WCd type, the dust thermal emission is important radiation source while many WR stars with the WC spectral type have the near infrared flux enhancement from the broad line emission in the K band.

It is also shown that many single WC stars with different spectral sub-types have different locations in the near infrared two-color diagram, in particular, WC6 and WC9d stars can be separated respectively from other spectral type stars while single WN stars with different spectral sub-types can not be separated in the near infrared two-color diagram.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the anonymous referee for his/her suggestive commons. This work is supported by grant from the NNSFC (No. 11173056). This work has made use of data products from the 2MASS All Sky Survey, the WISE All Sky Survey, the NASA ADS database and the CDS database.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. S. Chen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chen, P.S., Shan, H.G. 2MASS and WISE data analysis of Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars. Astrophys Space Sci 349, 339–360 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-013-1626-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-013-1626-8

Keywords

Navigation