Establishing Extreme Dynamic Range with JWST: Decoding Smoke Signals in the Glare of a Wolf-Rayet Binary
Stellar Physics
PI: Ryan Lau
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Program Details
Circumstellar Matter
Dust
Hot Stars
Interstellar Medium
Massive Stars
Mike Corcoran
Ori Fox
Ted Gull
Kenji Hamaguchi
Matthew J. Hankins
Mansi Kasliwal
Astrid Lamberts
Jamie Lomax
Tom Madura
Sergey Marchenko
Elisabeth Mills
Tony Moffat
Mark Morris
Andy Pollock
Michael Ressler
Noel Richardson
Christopher Michael Post Russell
Itsuki Sakon
Joel Sanchez-Bermudez
Anand Sivaramakrishnan
Nathan Smith
Deepashri Thatte
Peter Tuthill
Kevin Volk
Takehiko Wada
Gerd Weigelt
Peredur Williams
Dust is a key ingredient in the formation of stars and planets. However, the dominant channels of dust production throughout cosmic time are still unclear. With its unprecedented sensitivity and spatial resolution in the mid-IR, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the ideal platform to address this issue by investigating the dust abundance, composition, and production rates of various dusty sources. In particular, colliding-wind Wolf-Rayet (WR) binaries are efficient dust producers in the local Universe, and likely existed in the earliest galaxies. To study these interesting objects, we propose JWST observations of the archetypal colliding-wind binary WR 140 to study its dust composition, abundance, and formation mechanisms. We will utilize two key JWST observing modes with the medium-resolution spectrometer (MRS) on the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and the Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI) mode with the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS).
Our proposed observations will yield high impact scientific results on the dust forming properties WR binaries, and establish a benchmark for key observing modes for imaging bright sources with faint extended emission. This will be valuable in various astrophysical contexts including mass-loss from evolved stars, dusty tori around active galactic nuclei, and protoplanetary disks. We are committed to designing and delivering science-enabling products for the JWST community that address technical issues such as bright source artifacts that will limit the maximum achievable image contrast.
MIRI: Medium Resolution Spectroscopy
NIRISS: Aperture Masking Interferometry
Establish benchmarks and provide data reduction tools for key observing modes imaging faint extended emission around bright sources.
In addition to attending meetings, we plan to engage the community via social media and web-based forums. We will also engage with theorists to test CW simulations against observations.
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The NASA James Webb Space Telescope, developed in partnership with ESA and CSA, is operated by AURA’s Space Telescope Science Institute.