The Winds of Wolf-Rayet Stars: Their strength and Structure

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The Universe would be very different without massive stars. Indeed, they constitute the principal means by which material, and more particularly chemically enriched material, is exchanged between stars and the interstellar medium in galaxies. Most elements heavier than Carbon are fabricated within their core and they are injected into their surrounding medium in a spectacular way via supernova explosions. But throughout their short lives, massive stars also steadily inject matter, energy and momentum into the interstellar medium of galaxies in the form of a strong stellar wind. My research is about determining not only how much mass is lost by massive stars but also how it is lost; what is the structure of the wind. The stars I work on the most are named Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in honor of the two scientists that discovered them at the end of the 19th century. These are generally massive stars that have reached the stage of burning Helium in their core.