Peter Tuthill

Here be dragons: the mighty Wolf-Rayets

Not one star in a billion is a Wolf-Rayet, however these T-Rex’s of the stellar kingdom have always been over-achievers, responsible for some of the most dramatic fireworks in the heavens. In rare binary systems Wolf-Rayet stars can form colliding-wind binaries in which the collision of hot stellar winds produce dust plumes sculpted into the beautifully elegant Pinwheel Nebulae in the shape of an Archimedean spiral. These objects encode a wealth of key physics governing winds and mass loss for objects that, despite thei rarity, drive processes of profound cosmic significance (for example dominating chemical enrichment in the early universe). With new data now streaming from powerful new facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope, a handful are found to be adorned with intricate celestial sculptures spun from stardust. True to form, the Wolf-Rayets have once again stolen the show.