A search for new Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud.

A survey carried out at la Silla, Chile, with the 40-cm Objective Prism Astrograph, using an interference filter centered at lambda 4650 A, resulted in the identification of 4 new faint Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), afterwards confirmed by slit spectroscopy. The spectral classification of the 8 now known SMC WR stars and their components is considered, as well as the distribution amongst the different WR sub-classes. Discussion of the absolute magnitudes of the three faintest WR stars suggests a large extension in depth of the Cloud in the region where these WR stars are located.