Bibcode
DOI
Grosdidier, Yves; Moffat, Anthony F. J.; Blais-Ouellette, Sébastien; Joncas, Gilles; Acker, Agnès
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 562, Issue 2, pp. 753-769.
Advertised on:
12
2001
Journal
Citations
20
Refereed citations
17
Description
Bright circumstellar nebulae around massive stars are potentially useful
to derive time-dependent mass-loss rates and hence constrain the
evolution of the central stars. A key case in this context is the
relatively young ejection-type nebula M1-67 around the runaway
Population I Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 (=209 BAC), which exhibits a WN 8
spectrum. With HST-WFPC2 we have obtained a deep, Hα image of
M1-67. This image shows a wealth of complex detail that was briefly
presented previously by Grosdidier et al. With the interferometer of the
Université Laval (Québec, Canada), we have obtained
complementary Fabry-Perot Hα data using Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope (CFHT) MOS/SIS. From these data M1-67 appears more or less as
a spherical (or elliptical, with the major axis along the line of
sight), thick, shell seen almost exactly along its direction of rapid
spatial motion away from the observer in the ISM. However, a simple
thick shell by itself would not explain the observed multiple radial
velocities along the line of sight. This velocity dispersion leads one
to consider M1-67 as a thick accelerating shell. Given the extreme
perturbations of the velocity field in M1-67, it is virtually impossible
to measure any systematic impact of the present WR (or previous LBV)
wind on the nebular structure. The irregular nature of the velocity
field is likely due to either large variations in the density
distribution of the ambient ISM or large variations in the central star
mass-loss history. In addition, either from the density field or the
velocity field, we find no clear evidence for a bipolar outflow, as was
claimed in other studies. On the deep Hα image we have performed
continuous wavelet transforms to isolate stochastic structures of
different characteristic size and look for scaling laws. Small-scale
wavelet coefficients show that the density field of M1-67 is remarkably
structured in chaotically (or possibly radially) oriented filaments
everywhere in the nebula. We draw attention to a short, marginally
inertial range at the smallest scales (6.7-15.0×10-3
pc), which can be attributed to turbulence in the nebula, and a strong
scale break at larger scales. Examination of the structure functions for
different orders shows that the turbulent regime may be intermittent.
Using our Fabry-Perot interferograms, we also present an investigation
of the statistical properties of fluctuating gas motions using structure
functions traced by Hα emission-line centroid velocities. We find
that there is a clear correlation at scales 0.02-0.22 pc between the
mean quadratic differences of radial velocities and distance over the
surface of the nebula. This implies that the velocity field shows an
inertial range likely related to turbulence, though not coincident with
the small inertial range detected from the density field. The first- and
second-order moments of the velocity increments are found to scale as
<|Δv(r)|>~r0.5 and
<|Δv(r)|2>~r0.9. The former scaling
law strongly suggests that supersonic, compressible turbulence is at
play in the nebula; on the other hand, the latter scaling law agrees
very well with Larson-type laws for velocity turbulence. Examination of
the structure functions for different orders shows that the turbulent
regime is slightly intermittent and highly multifractal with universal
multifractal indexes α~1.90-1.92 and C1~0.04+/-0.01.
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,
obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under
NASA contract NAS 5-26555. Also based on observations collected at the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which is operated by CNRS of
France, NRC of Canada, and the University of Hawaii.