Hubble Space Telescope Images of the Compact Nebula around RY Scuti*

Nathan Smith; Robert D. Gehrz; Roberta M. Humphreys; Kris Davidson; Terry J. Jones; Joachim Krautter

doi:10.1086/300965

Hubble Space Telescope Images of the Compact Nebula around RY Scuti^*

Nathan Smith¹, Robert D. Gehrz², Roberta M. Humphreys², Kris Davidson², Terry J. Jones², and Joachim Krautter³

© 1999. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 118, Number 2 Citation Nathan Smith et al 1999 AJ 118 960 DOI 10.1086/300965

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Author affiliations

¹ Department of Astronomy, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215

² Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, 116 Church Street, SE, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455

³ Landessternwarte, Königstuhl, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Dates

Received 1999 January 13
Accepted 1999 March 15

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Abstract

We present HST Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 images of the very massive eclipsing binary RY Scuti. The HST Hα image shows a very complex ionized nebula roughly 1'' in size. Several interesting structures are revealed, including what appears to be a pair of concentric ionized rings above and below the equatorial plane of the system, located at the inner edge of a more extended dust torus. We reexamine some essential physical characteristics of the nebula, such as a possible magnetic field and the complicated mass-loss geometry of this near-Eddington limit contact binary. The effects of a rotating illumination source are considered to explain the brightness distribution in the rings. We suggest a model for the origin of the mass and detailed structure in the nebula. This model invokes a previous mass ejection that is shaped by nonspherical interacting winds and possibly magnetic fields.

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Footnotes

*
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.

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