Collaborative Research: RUI: Mass-Loss Rates for OB Stars Driving IR Bowshocks

首席研究员（PI）Kobulnicky和Povich将改进对大质量恒星风驱动质量损失的测量。 就像船在水中移动一样，恒星风与星际介质碰撞并产生弓形激波。PI将教授加州理工大学波莫纳分校和怀俄明州大学的数百名本科生，以及怀俄明州兰德高中天文俱乐部的成员如何参与在线Zooniverse银河系项目。学生将分析红外图像并描述弓形激波的特征。大学生还将参加怀俄明州红外天文台（WIRO）和阿帕奇天文台（APO）的夏季观测计划。该小组将确定400多颗恒星的物理性质。恒星风驱动的主序后质量损失会影响恒星结构、化学产额、超新星的光变曲线以及致密天体的形成。PI应用恒星风撞击相对于星星运动的环境星际介质之间的动量通量平衡原理来估计质量损失率。从档案斯皮策太空望远镜，宽视场红外巡天探测器（WISE）和赫歇尔空间天文台数据集的众包测量将限制红外恒星弓激波星云的几何形状。与GAIA数据库的交叉匹配将产生恒星距离和自行。学生将减少和分析与WIRO摄谱仪和APO基特峰俄亥俄州国家多目标摄谱仪（KOSMOS）采取的数据。该团队将根据经验为恒星温度、重力、旋转速率和演化阶段提供一个基于风驱动的恒星质量损失率的处方，该处方是以前样本的四倍以上。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Principal Investigators (PIs) Kobulnicky and Povich will improve measurements of wind driven mass loss from massive stars. Just like a boat moving through water, a stellar wind collides with the interstellar medium and creates a bowshock. The PIs will teach several hundred undergraduate students at Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Wyoming, and members of the Wyoming Lander high school astronomy club how to participate in the online Zooniverse-Milky Way Project. Students will analyze infrared images and characterize the bow shocks. University students will also participate in a summer observing program at the Wyoming Infrared Observatory (WIRO) and the Apache Observatory (APO). The team will determine the physical properties of over 400 stars.Post-main-sequence mass loss driven by stellar winds effects the stellar structure, chemical yield, the light curve of the supernova, and the formation of a compact object. The PIs apply the principle of momentum flux balance between a stellar wind impinging upon an ambient interstellar medium moving relative to the star to estimate the mass loss rate. The crowd-sourced measurements from archival Spitzer Space Telescope, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Herschel Space Observatory datasets will constrain the geometry of the infrared stellar bow shock nebulae. Cross-matching with the GAIA database will yield stellar distances and proper motions. Students will reduce and analyze the data taken with the WIRO spectrograph and the APO Kitt Peak Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (KOSMOS). The team will produce an empirically based prescription for wind-driven stellar mass-loss rates as a function of stellar temperature, gravity, rotation rate, and evolutionary stage, more than quadrupling previous samples.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.