The Discovery of a 12th Wolf‐Rayet Star in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

We report the discovery of a relatively faint (V=15.5) early-type WNstar in the SMC. The line strength and width of He II {λ}4686emission are similar to those of the other SMC WN stars, and thepresence of N V {λ}{λ}4603, 4619 emission (coupled with thelack of N III) suggests that this star is of spectral type WN3-4.5, andthus is similar in type to the other SMC WR stars. Also like the otherSMC WN stars, an early-type absorption spectrum is weakly present. Theabsolute magnitude is comparable to that of other (single) Galacticearly-type WN stars. The star is located in the Hodge 53 OB association,which is also the home of two other SMC WN stars. This star, which wedesignate SMC-WR12, was actually detected at a high significance levelin an earlier interference-filter survey, but the wrong star wasobserved as part of a spectroscopic follow-up, and this case of mistakenidentity resulted in its Wolf-Rayet nature not being recognized untilnow.