The Galactic WC and WO stars: The impact of revised distances from Gaia DR2 and their role as massive black hole progenitors

Understand

Wolf-Rayet stars of the carbon sequence (WC stars) are an important cornerstone in the late evolution of massive stars before their core collapse.

• As core-helium burning, hydrogen-free objects with huge mass-loss, they are likely the last observable stage before collapse and thus promising progenitor candidates for type Ib/c supernovae.
• Their strong mass-loss furthermore provides challenges and constraints to the theory of radiatively driven winds.
• Thus, the determination of the WC star parameters is of major importance for several astrophysical fields.