¹ Joint Astronomy Centre, 660 N. Aohoku Place, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA
² Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad, India 380009

Near infrared spectroscopy and photometry of the Wolf-Rayet Star WR 143 (HD 195177) were obtained in the JHK photometric bands. High resolution spectra observed in the J and H bands exhibit narrow 1.083-μm HeI line and the HI Pa and the Brackett series lines in emission superposed on the broad emission line spectrum of the Wolf-Rayet star, giving strong indications of the presence of a companion. From the narrow emission lines observed, the companion is identified to be an early-type Be star. The photometric magnitudes exhibit variations in the JHK bands which are probably due to the variability of the companion star. The flux density distribution is too steep for a Wolf-Rayet atmosphere. This is identified to be mainly due to the increasing contribution from the early-type companion star towards shorter wavelengths.

Accepted by MNRAS
Preprints on the web at http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510152