PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv
Detection of new Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with SPHEREx
Abstract
We assess the potential for the NASA Explorer SPHEREx mission in adding to the Milky Way census of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars by extracting 0.75--5micron spectrophotometry of 30 candidate WR stars previously identified using Gaia XP spectra. We confirm an additional Galactic 13 WR (8 WN and 5 WC) stars, identify 3 probable [WC]-type central stars of Planetary Nebulae, plus 2 He emission line sources. SPHEREx has the potential to detect additional relatively isolated WR stars on the far size of the Milky Way by combining Machine Learning techniques with a judicious choice of candidate selection criteria. Indeed SPHEREx is sufficiently sensitive to identify bright Magellanic Cloud Wolf-Rayet stars.
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BibTeX
@misc{crowther2026detection,
title = {{Detection of new Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with SPHEREx}},
author = {Paul A. Crowther and Erin L. Smith},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.28640},
eprint = {2609.28640},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28640},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Detection of new Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars with SPHEREx
AU - Paul A. Crowther
AU - Erin L. Smith
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/23
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.28640
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.28640
AB - We assess the potential for the NASA Explorer SPHEREx mission in adding to the Milky Way census of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars by extracting 0.75--5micron spectrophotometry of 30 candidate WR stars previously identified using Gaia XP spectra. We confirm an additional Galactic 13 WR (8 WN and 5 WC) stars, identify 3 probable [WC]-type central stars of Planetary Nebulae, plus 2 He emission line sources. SPHEREx has the potential to detect additional relatively isolated WR stars on the far size of the Milky Way by combining Machine Learning techniques with a judicious choice of candidate selection criteria. Indeed SPHEREx is sufficiently sensitive to identify bright Magellanic Cloud Wolf-Rayet stars.
ER -