HST WFPC2/Hα Imagery of the Nebula M1-67: A Clumpy LBV Wind Imprinting Itself on the Nebular Structure?

Abstract

With the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 we have obtained a deep, Hα image of the relatively young ejection-type nebula M1-67 around the runaway Population I Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 (WN 8). This image shows a wealth of complex detail, some of which have never been seen before in such a nebula. In particular, large arcs of nebulosity extend around the central star yet with no overall global shell structure to the nebula and no clear bipolar signature as claimed by Sirianni et al. In addition, numerous bright, mostly unresolved knots of emission, each <~10^-4 M_solar, occur in the inner part of the nebula, often surrounded by what appear to be their own local ``wind'' diffuse bubbles. Is this the first direct evidence of spatially resolved hot clumps being ejected from a hot central star?

Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.