Investigating the transitional nature of extreme O-type supergiants in X-rays

We propose to investigate the Xray properties of HD14947, an O5 supergiantbelieved to be a transition object between O and WolfRayet stars. Starsbelonging to this scarce category display several properties strongly pointingto their transitional status, including broad and strong emission lines in thevisible and infrared, and the existence is some cases of surrounding nebulaesimilar to those existing close to WR stars. We request observation time withXMMNewton to check whether the Xray emission of HD14947 deviates significantlyfrom the expected behaviour of regular Otype stars, as recently revealed by ourteam on the basis of an XMMNewton observation of a similar object, attemptingto establish an additional transition criterion in Xrays for evolved Otype stars. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]