Galactic Wolf Rayet Catalogue v1.36 (Gaia DR3), 718 WR stars, Sept 2026
Contact - Wolf-Rayet Star Catalogue The catalogue is intended to be an online compilation of all known Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars, based on the 7th catalogue compiled by Karel van der Hucht in 2001 (and its 2006 Annex). It is intended to be complementary to the Galactic O Star Catalogue (GOSC) from Jesus Maiz Appelaniz. This online catalogue was implemented by two MPhys students Adrian Kus and Katie Baker in 2011, with PHP support provided by Heloise Stevance in 2019. Please provide updates to Paul Crowther.

If you refer to the catalogue in a publication, please cite its URL and Rosslowe & Crowther (2005) whose Appendix A lists all WR stars discovered at that time (v1.10) subsequent to the Annex to the 7th WR catalogue and describes the current WR nomenclature scheme approved by the IAU Working Group for Massive Stars in 2012. Distances (using Gaia parallaxes) are mostly drawn from Crowther et al. (2023) using priors described by Rate and Crowther (2020). A distance of 8.15 kpc to the Galactic Centre is adopted, following Abuter et al. (2018, GRAVITY) and Abuter et al. (2019, GRAVITY). Details of column headings are provided below:
ColumnNameDescription
1 ID Internal entry
2 WR# WR Catalogue Number
3 Reference Discovery reference (post 7th catalogue)
4 HD Henry-Draper catalogue ID
5 Alias1 Gaia DR3 catalogue ID (Hipparcos for gamma Vel)
6 Alias2 Commonly used alias
7 Alias3 Alternative alias
8 Right Ascension Right Ascension in HH:MM:SS.sss (J2000).
9 Declination Declination in sDD:MM:SS.ss (J2000).
10 Galactic Longitude Galactic Longitude in degrees LL.llll
11 Galactic Latitude Galactic Latitude in degrees sLL.llll
12 Spectral Type Literature spectral type
13 Spectral Type Reference Reference to spectral type
14 Binary Status Binary status following VIIth catalogue nomenclature
(VB/SB=visual/spectroscopic binary; CWB=colliding wind binary; d.e.l. = diulted emission lines; a = absorption lines)
15 Binary Status Reference Reference to binary status/td>
16 u (WR) u narrow-band photometry Massey 1984
17 b (WR) b narrow-band photometry Massey 1984 (Mulato+2025 for Gaia XP spectra, sigma<0.1 mag)
18 v (WR) v narrow-band photometry Massey 1984 (Mulato+2025 for Gaia XP spectra, sigma<0.1 mag)
19 r (WR) r narrow-band photometry Massey 1984
20 U U band photometry (Johnson system)
21 B B band photometry (Johnson system)
22 V V band photometry (Johnson system)
23 G G band photometry (Gaia DR2 or DR3)
24 J J band photometry (Johnson system)
25 H H band photometry (Johnson system)
26 K K band photometry (Johnson system)
27 Cluster Cluster membership
28 Association OB Association membership
29 Star Forming Region Membership of optical/IR/radio star-forming region
30 Distance Estimated distance in kpc
31 Distance Reference Reference to estimated distance
32 Nebula Associated (ionized/ejecta) nebula. Optical: Chu 1991; Marston 1997; Stock & Barlow 2010; mid-IR: Wachter et al. 2010