Table · dataset · 2026
MOBStIRS: Bow shocks parameters from Zooniverse
Listed in IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory)
Mass-loss influences stellar evolution, especially for massive stars with strong winds.
Description
Stellar wind bow shock nebulae driven by Galactic OB stars can be used to measure mass-loss rates (Mdot). The standoff distance (R0) between the star and the bow shock is set by momentum flux balance between the stellar wind and the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM).
We created the Milky Way Project: mass-loss rates for OB Stars driving infrared bow shocks (MOBStIRS) using the online Zooniverse citizen science platform. We enlisted several hundred students to measure R0 and two other projected shape parameters for 764 cataloged infrared bow shocks. MOBStIRS incorporated 1528 JPEG cutout images produced from Spitzer GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL survey data.
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Measurements were aggregated to compute shape parameters for each bow shock image deemed high quality by participants. The average statistical uncertainty on R0 is 12.5% but varies from <5% to ~40% among individual bow shocks, contributing significantly to the total error budget of Mdot. The derived nebular morphologies agree well with (magneto) hydrodynamic simulations of bow shocks driven by the winds of OB stars moving at Va=10-40km/s with respect to the ambient ISM.
A systematic correction to R0 to account for viewing angle appears unnecessary for computing Mdot. Slightly more than half of MOBStIRS bow shocks are asymmetric, which could indicate anisotropic stellar winds, ISM clumping on sub-pc scales, time-dependent instabilities, and/or misalignments between the local ISM magnetic field and the star-bow- shock axis.
Links
Where it is published
- Reference page cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/169/337 ↗
landing page · from IVOA Registry
Documentation and papers
- ADS 2025AJ....169..337W ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025AJ....169..337W ↗
publication · from IVOA Registry
Catalogue records · 2
- VOResource record dc.g-vo.org/oai.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=ivo_vor&identifier=ivo%3… ↗
metadata API · from IVOA Registry
- Registry record (GAVO) dc.g-vo.org/I/cds.vizier/j/aj/169/337 ↗
catalogue entry · from IVOA Registry
Topics
- Stated by source
- Infrared
- From keywords
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Inferred from text
- Image 75%
Provenance · 1 source records, 9 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory) | ivo://cds.vizier/j/aj/169/337 | 14 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:astronomy | mapping · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].ivoa_waveband:infrared | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].local:modality:image | enrichment · IVOA Registry | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (75%) |
| description | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_description |
| license_text | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| publication_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_title |
| updated_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 |