A Radio Pinwheel Emanating from WR 147

Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars are evolved massive stars, presumably on their way to becoming supernovae. They are characterized by high luminosities and fast and dense stellar winds. We have detected signs of a radio continuum pinwheel associated with WR 147, a nitrogen-rich WR star with spectral subtype WN8. These structures are known to exist around a handful of late-type carbon-rich WR stars with massive companions where dust has formed in the zone where the two winds collide and produced a plume of dense gas and dust that is carried out with the WR wind. As the binary system rotates, an Archimedean spiral detectable in the infrared is formed. The resulting pinwheel contains information on wind speeds, wind-momentum ratio, and orbital parameters. However, WR 147 is a WN star and the formation of dust is unlikely, so a different emission mechanism must be at work. Our analysis of the data suggests that in this case the emission is dominantly of a nonthermal nature (synchrotron), although we cannot exclude the possibility that some clumps could be brighter in free–free emission. It is possible that the pinwheels associated with WN stars will be detectable only as nonthermal emitters at radio wavelengths. From the characteristics of the pinwheel we estimate a period of 1.7 yr for the binary system (the WN8 star and a companion yet undetected directly) that is responsible for the pinwheel.