WR 102c

WR 102c is a Wolf–Rayet star located in the constellation Sagittarius towards the galactic centre. It is only a few parsecs from the Quintuplet Cluster, within the Sickle Nebula.

WR 102c

Region around the Quintuplet Cluster. Full size image is annotated to show WR 102c. Credit: NASA/ESA, Hubble
Observation data Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation	Sagittarius
Right ascension	17h 46m 11.14s[1]
Declination	+28° 4905.9′[1]
Characteristics
Spectral type	WN6[2]
Apparent magnitude (K)	11.6[1]
Details[2]
Luminosity	320,000-500,000 L☉
Temperature	65,000-75,000 K
Age	4 - 6 Myr
Other designations
WR 102c, qF 353E
Database references
SIMBAD	data

Features

According to recent estimations, WR 102c is as much as 500,000 times brighter than the Sun. An initial study reporting a much higher luminosity mistakenly used photometry from a nearby star.^[3][4] It would have formed as a 40 M_☉ O-type main-sequence star a few million years ago and has since spent a period as a red supergiant before losing its outer layers completely. It is now almost hydrogen-free and nearing the end of its life. It will collapse within the next few hundred thousand years as it runs out of fuel in its core, producing a type Ib or Ic supernova or collapsing directly into a black hole.

WR 102c is surrounded by a shell of nebulosity which contains dust made even hotter than the star itself by intense radiation. The nebula also includes nearly 1 M_☉ of molecular hydrogen and around 10 M_☉ of ionised hydrogen, all expelled from the star.^[4]

There is a suggestion that WR 102c may be a binary star. A nearby corkscrew-shaped jet of nebulosity could have been expelled during the orbital motion. which would imply a period of 800 - 1,400 days.^[3] It is surrounded by a small cluster of stars around 1,000 M_☉ in total, separate from the much more massive Quintuplet Cluster.^[2]