R136

For the road in Dublin, see R136 road.
R136

In ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3
Credit: NASA, ESA
Observation data (J2000.0 epoch)
Constellation Dorado
Right ascension 05h 38m 42.396s[1]
Declination −69° 06′ 03.36″[1]
Distance 157 kly (48.5 kpc)
Apparent magnitude (V) 9.50
Physical characteristics
Mass 90,000[2] M☉
Estimated age 1.5+0.3
−0.7 million years[2]
Other designations UCAC2 1803442, SAO 249329, HD 38268, TYC 9163-1014-1, CD-69 324, GC 7114[3]

R136 (formally known as RMC 136 from the Radcliffe Observatory Magellanic Clouds catalogue[4]) is the central concentration of stars in the NGC 2070 star cluster, which lies at the centre of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. When originally named it was an unresolved stellar object (catalogued as HD 38268 and Wolf-Rayet star Brey 82) but is now known to include 72 class O and Wolf–Rayet stars within 5 parsecs (20 arc seconds) of the centre of the cluster.[5] The extreme number and concentration of young massive stars in this part of the LMC qualifies it as a starburst region.[6]

Properties

R136 produces most of the energy that makes the Tarantula Nebula visible. The estimated mass of the cluster is 450,000 solar masses, suggesting it may become a globular cluster in the future.[7] R136 has around 200 times the stellar density of a typical OB association such as Cygnus OB2.[8] The central R136 concentration of the cluster is about 2 parsecs across, although the whole NGC 2070 cluster is much larger.[8]

R136 is thought to be less than 2 million years old.[8][9] None of the member stars is significantly evolved and none is thought to have exploded as supernova. The brightest stars are WNh, O supergiants, and OIf/WN slash stars, all extremely massive fully convective stars. There are no red supergiants, blue hypergiants, or luminous blue variables within the cluster. A small number of class B stars have been detected in the outskirts of the cluster, but less massive and less luminous stars cannot be resolved from the dense cluster core at the large distance of the LMC.[5]

R136a

R136a is the bright knot at the centre of R136.[2]

Components

The cluster R136 contains many of the most massive and luminous stars known, including R136a1. Within the central 5 parsecs there are 32 of the hottest type O stars (O2.0–3.5), 40 other O stars, and 12 Wolf-Rayet stars, mostly of the extremely luminous WNh type. Within 150 parsecs there are a further 325 O stars and 19 Wolf-Rayet stars.[5] Several runaway stars have been associated with R136, including VFTS 682.[10]

R136 was first resolved into three components R136a, R136b, and R136c. R136a was resolved using speckle interferometry and eventually space-based observations into as many as 24 components,[11] dominated by R136a1, R136a2, and R136a3, all three being extremely massive WNh stars several million times more luminous than the sun.

Name Right ascension[5] Declination[5] V[2] (F555W) Spectral type[2] MV[2] (F555W) Temperature (K)[2] Luminosity (L☉)[2] Mass (M☉)[2]
Basic data for the original RMC 136 a/b/c stars
R136a1 05h 38m 42.39s −69° 06′ 02.91″ 12.28 WN5h −8.09 53,000 8,710,000 315
R136a2 05h 38m 42.40s −69° 06′ 02.88″ 12.80 WN5h −7.52 53,000 4,266,000 195
R136a3 05h 38m 42.33s −69° 06′ 03.27″ 12.97 WN5h −7.39 53,000 3,802,000 180
R136a4 05h 38m 42.34s −69° 06′ 02.60″ 13.96 O2–3V −6.51 51,000 2,884,000 124
R136a5 05h 38m 42.43s −69° 06′ 02.73″ 13.71 O2If* −6.65 50,000 2,089,000 101
R136a6 05h 38m 42.29s −69° 06′ 03.37″ 13.35 O2If −6.96 46,000 3,311,000 150
R136a7 05h 38m 42.41s −69° 06′ 02.57″ 13.97 O3III(f*) −6.10 46,000 977,000 69
R136a8 05h 38m 42.37s −69° 06′ 01.9″? 14.42 O2–3V −6.05 51,000 1,905,000 96
R136b 05h 38m 42.74s −69° 06′ 03.78″ 13.24 O4If/WN8 −7.31 41,000 1,995,000 93
R136c 05h 38m 42.90s −69° 06′ 04.83″ 12.86 WN5h −7.9[5] 51,000 5,623,000 230

Gallery

  1. ^ "R136 observed with WFC3". Retrieved 23 March 2016. 

See also

Wikinews has related news: Astronomers discover largest star on record

References

  1. 1 2 Høg, E.; Fabricius, C.; Makarov, V. V.; Urban, S.; Corbin, T.; Wycoff, G.; Bastian, U.; Schwekendiek, P.; Wicenec, A. (2000). "The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 355: L27. Bibcode:2000A&A...355L..27H.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Crowther, Paul A.; Caballero-Nieves, S. M.; Bostroem, K. A.; Maíz Apellániz, J.; Schneider, F. R. N.; Walborn, N. R.; Angus, C. R.; Brott, I.; Bonanos, A.; De Koter, A.; De Mink, S. E.; Evans, C. J.; Gräfener, G.; Herrero, A.; Howarth, I. D.; Langer, N.; Lennon, D. J.; Puls, J.; Sana, H.; Vink, J. S. (2016). "The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. I. Far-ultraviolet spectroscopic census and the origin of He II λ1640 in young star clusters". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 458: 624. arXiv:1603.04994Freely accessible. Bibcode:2016MNRAS.458..624C. doi:10.1093/mnras/stw273.
  3. ↑ Simbad data for RMC 136
  4. ↑ Feast, M. W.; Thackeray, A. D.; Wesselink, A. J. (1960). "The brightest stars in the Magellanic Clouds". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 121 (4): 337. Bibcode:1960MNRAS.121..337F. doi:10.1093/mnras/121.4.337.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Doran, E. I.; Crowther, P. A.; de Koter, A.; Evans, C. J.; McEvoy, C.; Walborn, N. R.; Bastian, N.; Bestenlehner, J. M.; Grafener, G.; Herrero, A.; Kohler, K.; Maiz Apellaniz, J.; Najarro, F.; Puls, J.; Sana, H.; Schneider, F. R. N.; Taylor, W. D.; van Loon, J. Th.; Vink, J. S. (2013). "The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey - XI. A census of the hot luminous stars and their feedback in 30 Doradus". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 558: A134. arXiv:1308.3412v1Freely accessible. Bibcode:2013A&A...558A.134D. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201321824.
  6. ↑ Brandl, B.; Sams, B. J.; Bertoldi, F.; Eckart, A.; Genzel, R.; Drapatz, S.; Hofmann, R.; Loewe, M.; Quirrenbach, A. (1996). "Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared Imaging of R136 in 30 Doradus: The Stellar Population of a Nearby Starburst". The Astrophysical Journal. 466: 254. Bibcode:1996ApJ...466..254B. doi:10.1086/177507.
  7. ↑ Bosch, Guillermo; Terlevich, Elena; Terlevich, Roberto (2009). "Gemini/GMOS Search for Massive Binaries in the Ionizing Cluster of 30 Dor". Astronomical Journal. 137 (2): 3437–3441. arXiv:0811.4748Freely accessible. Bibcode:2009AJ....137.3437B. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/2/3437.
  8. 1 2 3 Massey, P.; Hunter, D. A. (1998). "Star Formation in R136: A Cluster of O3 Stars Revealed by Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy". The Astrophysical Journal. 493: 180. Bibcode:1998ApJ...493..180M. doi:10.1086/305126.
  9. ↑ Crowther, P. A.; Schnurr, O.; Hirschi, R.; Yusof, N.; Parker, R. J.; Goodwin, S. P.; Kassim, H. A. (2010). "The R136 star cluster hosts several stars whose individual masses greatly exceed the accepted 150 M⊙ stellar mass limit". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 408 (2): 731. arXiv:1007.3284Freely accessible. Bibcode:2010MNRAS.408..731C. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17167.x.
  10. ↑ Banerjee, S.; Kroupa, P.; Oh, S. (2012). "Runaway Massive Stars from R136: Vfts 682 is Very Likely A "Slow Runaway"". The Astrophysical Journal. 746: 15. arXiv:1111.0291Freely accessible. Bibcode:2012ApJ...746...15B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/746/1/15.
  11. ↑ Campbell, B.; Hunter, D. A.; Holtzman, J. A.; Lauer, T. R.; Shayer, E. J.; Code, A.; Faber, S. M.; Groth, E. J.; Light, R. M.; Lynds, R.; O'Neil, E. J. , J.; Westphal, J. A. (1992). "Hubble Space Telescope Planetary Camera images of R136". The Astronomical Journal. 104: 1721. Bibcode:1992AJ....104.1721C. doi:10.1086/116355.

Further reading

External links

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