Observing stellar bow shocks

Abstract

For stars, the bow shock is typically the boundary between their stellar wind and the interstellar medium. Named for the wave made by a ship as it moves through water, the bow shock wave can be created in the space when two streams of gas collide. The space is actually filled with the interstellar medium consisting of tenuous gas and dust. Stars are emitting a flow called stellar wind. Stellar wind eventually bumps into the interstellar medium, creating an interface where the physical conditions such as density and pressure change dramatically, possibly giving rise to a shock wave. Here we discuss some literature on stellar bow shocks and show observations of some of them, enhanced by image processing techniques, in particular by the recently proposed AstroFracTool software.