WR 124

WR 124

NIRCam and MIRI composite image by the James Webb Space Telescope (north is approximately towards top left)
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox ICRS
Constellation Sagitta
Right ascension 19h 11m 30.875s
Declination +16° 51′ 38.20″
Apparent magnitude (V) 11.17 – 11.25
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage Wolf–Rayet
Spectral type WN8h
Apparent magnitude (B) 12.19±0.16
Apparent magnitude (J) 8.578±0.024
Apparent magnitude (H) 8.179±0.018
Apparent magnitude (K) 7.732±0.018
B−V color index 0.69
Variable type Eruptive (WR)
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)190±7.4 km/s
Proper motion (μ) RA: −2.517±0.012 mas/yr
Dec.: −5.671±0.012 mas/yr
Parallax (π)0.1568±0.0140 mas
Distance21,000 ± 2,000 ly
(6,400 ± 600 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV)−6.58
Details
Mass20 M☉
Radius11.93 R☉
Luminosity562,000 L☉
Temperature44,700 K
Age8.6 Myr
Other designations
Merrill's Star, Sh 2-80, Hen 2-427, QR Sagittae, HIP 94289, GSC 01586-00411
Database references
SIMBADdata

WR 124 is a Wolf–Rayet star in the constellation of Sagitta surrounded by a ring nebula of expelled material known as M1-67. It is one of the fastest runaway stars in the Milky Way with a radial velocity around 200 km/s. It was discovered by Paul W. Merrill in 1938, identified as a high-velocity Wolf–Rayet star. In 1982, Anthony Moffat et al. discovered that WR 124 is a variable star. It was given its variable star designation, QR Sagittae, in 1985. It is listed in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars with a brightness range of 0.08 magnitudes.

Distance

A 2010 study of WR 124 directly measured the expansion rate of the M1-67 nebula expelled from the star using Hubble Space Telescope camera images taken 11 years apart, and compared that to the expansion velocity measured by the Doppler shift of the nebular emission lines. This yielded a distance of 3.35 kpc, which is less than previous studies, and the resulting luminosity of 150,000 times the Sun (L☉) is much lower than previously calculated. The luminosity is also lower than predicted by models for a star of this spectral class. Previous studies had found distances of 5 kpc to 8.4 kpc, with corresponding luminosities of 338,000–1,000,000 L☉, as expected for a typical WN8h which is a very young star just moving away from the main sequence. The distance to WR 124 calculated from the parallax published in Gaia Data Release 2 is 6,203+1,621
−1,123 pc. Gaia Early Data Release 3 gives a similar parallax, which would suggest a distance 6,400+500
−500 pc.

Physical characteristics

A visual band light curve for QR Sagittae, adapted from Weiss et al. (2014). The blue points show the magnitude of QR Sagittae, and the black points show the magnitude of a stable comparison star in the same field of view.

With an assumed visual absolute magnitude of −7.22 and 3.1 magnitudes of extinction, WR 124 would be 8.5 kpc away. The temperature of around 40,000 K means that most of its energy is emitted at ultraviolet wavelengths, the bolometric luminosity is 1,000,000 L☉ and the radius is 26 R☉. The mass is calculated from evolutionary models to be 33 M☉.

WR 124 is measured to still be about 15% hydrogen with most of the remaining mass being helium. A young highly massive and luminous WN8h star would still be burning hydrogen in its core, but a less luminous and older star would be burning helium in its core. The result of modelling the star purely from its observed characteristics is a luminosity of 1,000,000 L☉ and a mass of 33 M☉, corresponding to a relatively young hydrogen-burning star at around 8 kpc. In either case, it has only a few hundred thousand years before it explodes as a type Ib or Ic supernova.

The mass loss rate is 10−5 M☉–10−4 M☉ per year, depending on the distance and properties determined for the star.

Nebula

Hubble Space Telescope image of the nebula M1-67 and WR 124 at its center (north is down)

WR 124 is surrounded by an intensely hot nebula formed from the star's extreme stellar wind. The nebula M1-67 is expanding at a rate of over 150,000 km/h (93,000 mph) and is nearly 6 light-years across, leading to the dynamical age of 20,000 years. M1-67 has little internal structure, though large clumps of material have been detected, some of which have 30 times the mass of Earth and stretch out up to 150 billion km (93 billion mi). If placed in the Solar System, one of these clumps would span the distance from the Sun to Saturn.

References

  1. ↑ Roman, Nancy G. (1987). "Identification of a constellation from a position". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 99 (617): 695. Bibcode:1987PASP...99..695R. doi:10.1086/132034. Constellation record for this object at VizieR.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2021). "Gaia Early Data Release 3: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 649: A1. arXiv:2012.01533. Bibcode:2021A&A...649A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039657. S2CID 227254300. (Erratum: doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039657e). Gaia EDR3 record for this source at VizieR.
  3. ↑ "QR Sge". International Variable Star Index. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Hamann, W.-R.; Gräfener, G.; Liermann, A. (2006). "The Galactic WN stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 457 (3): 1015. arXiv:astro-ph/0608078. Bibcode:2006A&A...457.1015H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20065052. S2CID 18714731.
  5. 1 2 Høg, E.; Fabricius, C.; Makarov, V. V.; Urban, S.; Corbin, T.; Wycoff, G.; Bastian, U.; Schwekendiek, P.; Wicenec, A. (2000). "The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 355: L27. Bibcode:2000A&A...355L..27H. doi:10.1888/0333750888/2862.
  6. 1 2 3 Cutri, Roc M.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Van Dyk, Schuyler D.; Beichman, Charles A.; Carpenter, John M.; Chester, Thomas; Cambresy, Laurent; Evans, Tracey E.; Fowler, John W.; Gizis, John E.; Howard, Elizabeth V.; Huchra, John P.; Jarrett, Thomas H.; Kopan, Eugene L.; Kirkpatrick, J. Davy; Light, Robert M.; Marsh, Kenneth A.; McCallon, Howard L.; Schneider, Stephen E.; Stiening, Rae; Sykes, Matthew J.; Weinberg, Martin D.; Wheaton, William A.; Wheelock, Sherry L.; Zacarias, N. (2003). "VizieR Online Data Catalog: 2MASS All-Sky Catalog of Point Sources (Cutri+ 2003)". CDS/ADC Collection of Electronic Catalogues. 2246: II/246. Bibcode:2003yCat.2246....0C.
  7. 1 2 Kukarkin, B. V.; Kholopov, P. N.; Pskovsky, Y. P.; Efremov, Y. N.; Kukarkina, N. P.; Kurochkin, N. E.; Medvedeva, G. I. (1971). "The third edition containing information on 20437 variable stars discovered and designated till 1968". General Catalogue of Variable Stars: 0. Bibcode:1971GCVS3.C......0K.
  8. ↑ Kharchenko, N. V.; Scholz, R.-D.; Piskunov, A. E.; Röser, S.; Schilbach, E. (2007). "Astrophysical supplements to the ASCC-2.5: Ia. Radial velocities of ˜55000 stars and mean radial velocities of 516 Galactic open clusters and associations". Astronomische Nachrichten. 328 (9): 889. arXiv:0705.0878. Bibcode:2007AN....328..889K. doi:10.1002/asna.200710776. S2CID 119323941.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Sota, A.; Maíz Apellániz, J.; Morrell, N. I.; Barbá, R. H.; Walborn, N. R.; Gamen, R. C.; Arias, J. I.; Alfaro, E. J.; Oskinova, L. M. (2019). "The Galactic WN stars revisited. Impact of Gaia distances on fundamental stellar parameters". Astronomy & Astrophysics. A57: 625. arXiv:1904.04687. Bibcode:2019A&A...625A..57H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201834850. S2CID 104292503.
  10. 1 2 Marchenko, S. V.; Moffat, A. F. J.; Crowther, P. A. (2010). "Population I Wolf–Rayet Runaway Stars: The Case of Wr124 and Its Expanding Nebula M1-67". The Astrophysical Journal. 724 (1): L90–L94. arXiv:1011.0785. Bibcode:2010ApJ...724L..90M. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/724/1/L90. S2CID 119186821.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Crowther, Paul A.; Pasquali, A.; De Marco, Orsola; Schmutz, W.; Hillier, D. J.; De Koter, A. (1999). "Wolf–Rayet nebulae as tracers of stellar ionizing fluxes. I. M1-67". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 350: 1007. arXiv:astro-ph/9908200. Bibcode:1999A&A...350.1007C.
  12. ↑ Merrill, P. W. (1938). "A Wolf–Rayet Star with High Velocity". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 50 (298): 350. Bibcode:1938PASP...50..350M. doi:10.1086/124982.
  13. ↑ Moffat, A. F. J.; Lamontagne, R.; Seggewiss, W. (October 1982). "The fastest runaway Wolf-rayet star of population I in the galaxy, 209 BAC : evidence for a low mass companion". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 114: 135–146. Bibcode:1982A&A...114..135M.
  14. ↑ Kholopov, P. N.; Samus, N. N.; Kazarovets, E. V.; Perova, N. B. (March 1985). "The 67th Name-List of Variable Stars" (PDF). Information Bulletin on Variable Stars. 2681: 1–32. Bibcode:1985IBVS.2681....1K. Retrieved 26 October 2025.
  15. ↑ Bailer-Jones, C. A. L.; Rybizki, J.; Fouesneau, M.; Mantelet, G.; Andrae, R. (2018). "Estimating Distance from Parallaxes. IV. Distances to 1.33 Billion Stars in Gaia Data Release 2". The Astronomical Journal. 156 (2): 58. arXiv:1804.10121. Bibcode:2018AJ....156...58B. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aacb21. S2CID 119289017.
  16. ↑ Weiss, W. W.; Rucinski, S. M.; Moffat, A. F. J.; Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A.; Koudelka, O. F.; Grant, C. C.; Zee, R. E.; Kuschnig, R.; Mochnacki, St.; Matthews, J. M.; Orleanski, P.; Pamyatnykh, A.; Pigulski, A.; Alves, J.; Guedel, M.; Handler, G.; Wade, G. A.; Zwintz, K. (June 2014). "BRITE-Constellation: Nanosatellites for Precision Photometry of Bright Stars". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 126 (940): 573–585. arXiv:1309.5531. Bibcode:2014PASP..126..573W. doi:10.1086/677236. S2CID 119198233.
  17. ↑ Meynet, G.; Maeder, A. (2003). "Stellar evolution with rotation". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 404 (3): 975–990. arXiv:astro-ph/0304069. Bibcode:2003A&A...404..975M. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20030512. S2CID 17546535.