Observations of the UV-Bright Star in 47 Tucanae with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope

W. Van Dyke Dixon and Arthur F. Davidsen
Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University
Charles and 34th Streets, Baltimore, Maryland 21218

and

Henry C. Ferguson
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218

Abstract:

The UV-bright star `BS' in the globular cluster 47 Tuc (NGC 104) was observed with the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) during the Astro-2 space shuttle mission in 1995 March. The resulting spectrum extends from 912 to 1840 Å with a resolution of 3 Å. It has numerous absorption features, but no emission features other than terrestrial airglow lines. We have fit the data with Kurucz stellar atmosphere models using a minimization technique. The Kurucz model which best fits the observed spectrum has K, , and ; however, it overpredicts the flux in the sub-Ly region by nearly a factor of three. Kurucz line profiles fit to the star's H Balmer line yield . Assuming a distance of kpc, we estimate the stellar luminosity to be . These atmospheric parameters place the star on the Schönberner post-AGB evolutionary tracks. We measure the equivalent widths of the star's absorption lines and find them consistent with the abundances of cluster giant and AGB stars, except for carbon, which may be underabundant, suggesting that CNO-processed material was brought to the surface while the star was on the AGB. We conclude that non-LTE effects and non-solar abundance ratios not included in the Kurucz models are important in this star.





wvd@pha.jhu.edu