A luminous carbon star in Canis Major OB1.
Abstract
The fact that W CMa illuminates a reflection nebula is used to argue that it is spatially associated with the CMa OB1/CMa R1 complex. An apparent cluster around the carbon star is found to consist primarly of field stars, although a few probable late B-type members of CMa OB1 are identified. On the basis of its likely association with CMa OB1, a luminosity for W CMa is derived. We find M = -4.7 and = -7.2. It seems likely that the progenitor of W CMa was an 0-type member of CMa OB1 with a mass greater than 20 `AJ' and a main-sequence lifetime less than 3 X 106 years. Key words: carbon star-stellar associates-stellar evolution
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Pub Date:
- October 1977
- DOI:
- 10.1086/130205
- Bibcode:
- 1977PASP...89..663H
- Keywords:
-
- Carbon Stars:Evolution;
- Carbon Stars:Luminosities;
- Carbon Stars:Stellar Associations