R136a2

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R136a2
R136a1 star.jpg
The central region of the R136 star cluster as seen in near infrared. R136a1 and R136a2 are the two very close bright stars at the center, with R136a2 being the fainter of the two.
Credit: ESO
Observation data
Epoch J2000        Equinox J2000
Constellation Dorado
Right ascension 05h 38m 42.40s [1]
Declination −69° 06′ 02.88″ [1]
Apparent magnitude  (V)12.34 [1]
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage Wolf-Rayet star
Spectral type WN5h [2]
B−V color index 0.23 [1]
Astrometry
Distance 163,000  ly
(50,000 [3]   pc)
Absolute magnitude  (MV)-7.80 [4]
Absolute bolometric
magnitude  (Mbol)		-12.0 [5]
Details [6] [7]
Mass 151+27
−16  M☉
Radius 25.2+4.1
−3.5  R☉
Luminosity 3,548,000  L☉
Temperature 50,000  K
Rotational velocity (v sin i)150 km/s
Age 1.34+0.13
−0.18  Myr
Other designations
MH  511, RMC  136a2, HSH95 5, BAT99  109, CHH92 2
Database references
SIMBAD data

R136a2 (RMC 136a2) is a Wolf-Rayet star residing near the center of the R136, the central concentration of stars of the large NGC 2070 open cluster in the Tarantula Nebula, a massive H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud which is a nearby satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It has one of the highest confirmed masses and luminosities of any known star, at about 151  M☉ and 3.5 million L☉ respectively.

Contents

Discovery

In 1960, a group of astronomers working at the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria made systematic measurements of the brightness and spectra of bright stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Among the objects cataloged was RMC 136, (Radcliffe Observatory Magellanic Cloud Catalogue, Catalog number 136) the central "star" of 30 Doradus. Subsequent observations showed that R136 was located in the center of a giant H II region that was a center of intense star formation in the immediate vicinity of the observed stars. [8]

In the early 1980s, R136a was first resolved using speckle interferometry into 8 components. [9] R136a2 was marginally the second brightest found within 1 arc-second at the centre of the R136 cluster. Previous estimates that the brightness of the central region would require as many as 30 hot O class stars within half a parsec at the centre of the cluster [10] had led to speculation that a star several thousand times the mass of the sun was the more likely explanation. [11] Instead it was eventually found that it consisted of a few extremely luminous stars accompanied by a larger number of hot O stars. [1]

Distance

Determining a precise distance to R136a2 is challenging due to many factors. At the immense distance to the LMC, the parallax method is beyond the limits of current technology. Most estimates assume that R136 is at the same distance as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The most accurate distance to the LMC is 49.97 kpc, derived from a comparison of the angular and linear dimensions of eclipsing binary stars. [3]

Properties

Like all Wolf-Rayet stars, R136a2 is undergoing severe mass loss by a fast stellar wind. The star loses 4.6×10−5 solar masses per year through a stellar wind with a speed of 2,400 km/s. [5] [12] The high mass of the star compresses and heats the core and promotes rapid hydrogen fusion predominantly through the CNO process, leading to a luminosity of 5,129,000 L☉. The fusion rate is so great that in 10 seconds R136a2 produces more energy than the Sun does in a year. It may have been a 221 M☉ star at the time it was born and lost as much as 24 M☉ in the past 1 to 2 million years, [4] but since current theories suggest that no stars can be born above 150 M☉ it may be a merger of two or more stars. [13]

Although the star is one of the most massive known it has a radius of 34.7 R☉ and a volume of 41,800 suns, [4] far smaller than the largest stars such as VY CMa. Because of the high temperature, it emits most of its energy in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the visual brightness is only 114,000 times the sun (MV −7.80). [4]

Fate

It is thought that stars this massive can never lose enough mass to avoid a catastrophic end with the collapse of a large iron core. The result will be a supernova, hypernova, gamma-ray burst, or perhaps almost no visible explosion, and leaving behind a black hole. The exact details depend heavily on the timing and amount of mass loss, with current models not fully reproducing the distribution of stars and supernovae that we observe. The most massive stars in the local universe are expected to progress to hydrogen-free Wolf Rayet stars before their cores collapse, producing a type Ib or Ic supernova and leaving behind a black hole. Gamma ray bursts are only expected under unusual conditions, or for less massive stars. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R136</span> Super star cluster in the constellation Dorado, in the Large Magellanic Cloud

R136 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 but is now known to include 72 class O and Wolf–Rayet stars within 5 parsecs of the centre of the cluster. The extreme number and concentration of young massive stars in this part of the LMC qualifies it as a starburst region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arches Cluster</span>

The Arches Cluster is the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way, about 100 light-years from its center in the constellation Sagittarius, 25,000 light-years from Earth. Its discovery was reported by Nagata et al. in 1995, and independently by Cotera et al. in 1996. Due to extremely heavy optical extinction by dust in this region, the cluster is obscured in the visual bands, and is observed in the X-ray, infrared and radio bands. It contains approximately 135 young, very hot stars that are many times larger and more massive than the Sun, plus many thousands of less massive stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 2060</span> Star cluster in the constellation Dorado

NGC 2060 is a star cluster within the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, very close to the larger NGC 2070 cluster containing R136. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1836. It is a loose cluster approximately 10 million years old, within one of the Tarantula Nebula's superbubbles formed by the combined stellar winds of the cluster or by old supernovae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R136b</span> Star in the constellation Dorado

R136b is a Wolf–Rayet star in the R136 cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is one of the most massive and most luminous stars known. It is found in the dense R136 open cluster at the centre of NGC 2070 in the Tarantula Nebula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HD 97950</span> Multiple star system in the constellation Carina

HD 97950, is a multiple star system and part of a super star cluster within the NGC 3603 H II region. It was catalogued as a single star although it was always known to be a compact cluster. It is now resolved into a massive multiple star at the centre of one of the densest clusters in the galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R136a1</span> Wolf–Rayet star with one of the highest mass and luminosity of any known star

R136a1 is one of the most massive and luminous stars known, at 196 M☉ and nearly 4.7 million L☉, and is also one of the hottest, at around 46,000 K. It is a Wolf–Rayet star at the center of R136, the central concentration of stars of the large NGC 2070 open cluster in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The cluster can be seen in the far southern celestial hemisphere with binoculars or a small telescope, at magnitude 7.25. R136a1 itself is 100 times fainter than the cluster and can only be resolved using speckle interferometry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melnick 42</span> Massive blue supergiant star in the constellation Dorado

Melnick 42 is a massive blue supergiant star in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud located in the constellation Dorado. Although it is only 21 times the size of the sun, its high temperature of 47,300 K makes it one of the most luminous stars of the Tarantula Nebula at 3,600,000 L☉. It is less than two parsecs from the centre of the R136 cluster, although that is well outside the central core.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VFTS 682</span> Wolf Rayet star in the constellation Dorado

VFTS 682 is a Wolf–Rayet star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is located over 29 parsecs (95 ly) north-east of the massive cluster R136 in the Tarantula Nebula. It is 138 times the mass of the sun and 3.2 million times more luminous which makes it one of the most massive and most luminous stars known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R136c</span> Star in the constellation Dorado

R136c is a star located in R136, a tight knot of stars at the centre of NGC 2070, an open cluster weighing 450,000 solar masses and containing 10,000 stars. At 142 M☉ and 3.8 million L☉, it is the one of the most massive stars known and one of the most luminous, along with being one of the hottest, at over 40,000 K. It was first resolved and named by Feitzinger in 1980, along with R136a and R136b.

HD 38282 is a massive spectroscopic binary star in the Tarantula Nebula, consisting of two hydrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R136a3</span> Star in the constellation Dorado

R136a3 is a Wolf–Rayet star in R136, a massive star cluster located in Dorado. It is located near R136a1, the most massive and luminous star known. R136a3 is itself one of the most massive and most luminous stars known at about 179 times more massive and 5 million times more luminous than the Sun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 3603-C</span> Binary star system in the constellation Carina

NGC 3603-C is a single-lined spectroscopic binary star system located at the centre of the HD 97950 cluster in the NGC 3603 star-forming region, about 25,000 light years from Earth. The primary has spectral type WN6h and is among the most luminous and most massive known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BI 253</span> O-type main sequence star in the constellation Dorado

BI 253 is an O2V star in the Large Magellanic Cloud and is a primary standard of the O2 type. It is one of the hottest main-sequence stars known and one of the most-massive and most-luminous stars known.

WR 142 is a Wolf-Rayet star in the constellation Cygnus, an extremely rare star on the WO oxygen sequence. It is a luminous and very hot star, highly evolved and close to exploding as a supernova. It is suspected to be a binary star with a companion orbiting about 1 AU away.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melnick 34</span> Binary star in the Large Magellanic cloud

Melnick 34, also called BAT99-116, is a binary Wolf–Rayet star near R136 in the 30 Doradus complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Both components are amongst the most massive and most luminous stars known, and the system is the most massive known binary system.

BAT99-98 is a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is located near the R136 cluster in the 30 Doradus nebula. At 226 M☉ and 5,000,000 L☉ it is one of the most massive and luminous stars known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R145</span> Binary star in the constellation Dorado

R145 is a spectroscopic binary star in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud located in the constellation Dorado. Both components are amongst the most luminous known.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Doran, E. I.; Crowther, P. A.; De Koter, A.; Evans, C. J.; McEvoy, C.; Walborn, N. R.; Bastian, N.; Bestenlehner, J. M.; Gräfener, G.; Herrero, A.; Köhler, K.; Maíz Apellániz, 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: 1308.3412 . Bibcode:2013A&A...558A.134D. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201321824. S2CID   118510909.
  2. ↑ Schnurr, O.; Chené, A.-N.; Casoli, J.; Moffat, A. F. J.; St-Louis, N. (2009). "VLT/SINFONI time-resolved spectroscopy of the central, luminous, H-rich WN stars of R136". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 397 (4): 2049. arXiv: 0905.2934 . Bibcode:2009MNRAS.397.2049S. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15060.x. S2CID   11425847.
  3. 1 2 Pietrzyński, G.; Graczyk, D.; Gieren, W.; Thompson, I. B.; Pilecki, B.; Udalski, A.; Soszyński, I.; Kozłowski, S.; Konorski, P.; Suchomska, K.; Bono, G.; Moroni, P. G. Prada; Villanova, S.; Nardetto, N.; Bresolin, F.; Kudritzki, R. P.; Storm, J.; Gallenne, A.; Smolec, R.; Minniti, D.; Kubiak, M.; Szymański, M. K.; Poleski, R.; Wyrzykowski, Ł.; Ulaczyk, K.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Górski, M.; Karczmarek, P. (2013). "An eclipsing-binary distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud accurate to two per cent". Nature. 495 (7439): 76–9. arXiv: 1303.2063 . Bibcode:2013Natur.495...76P. doi:10.1038/nature11878. PMID   23467166. S2CID   4417699.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Bestenlehner, Joachim M.; Crowther, Paul A.; Caballero-Nieves, Saida M.; Schneider, Fabian R. N.; Simón-Díaz, Sergio; Brands, Sarah A.; De Koter, Alex; Gräfener, Götz; Herrero, Artemio; Langer, Norbert; Lennon, Daniel J.; Maíz Apellániz, Jesus; Puls, Joachim; Vink, Jorick S. (2020). "The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. II. Physical properties of the most massive stars in R136". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 499 (2): 1918. arXiv: 2009.05136 . Bibcode:2020MNRAS.499.1918B. doi:10.1093/mnras/staa2801.
  5. 1 2 Hainich, R.; Rühling, U.; Todt, H.; Oskinova, L. M.; Liermann, A.; Gräfener, G.; Foellmi, C.; Schnurr, O.; Hamann, W.-R. (2014). "The Wolf-Rayet stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 565: A27. arXiv: 1401.5474 . Bibcode:2014A&A...565A..27H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322696. S2CID   55123954.
  6. ↑ Brands, S.; de Koter, A.; Bestenlehner, J.; Crowther, P.; Sundqvist, J.; Puls, J.; Caballero-Nieves, S.; Abdul-Masih, M.; Driessen, F.; Garcia, M.; Geen, S.; Gräfener, G.; Hawcroft, C.; Kaper, L.; Keszthelyi, Z.; Langer, N.; Sana, H.; Schneider, Fabian R. N.; Shenar, T.; Vink, Jorick S. (7 April 2022). "The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. III. The most massive stars and their clumped winds". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 663: A36. arXiv: 2202.11080 . Bibcode:2022A&A...663A..36B. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202142742. ISSN   0004-6361. S2CID   247025548.
  7. ↑ Kalari, Venu M.; Horch, Elliott P.; Salinas, Ricardo; Vink, Jorick S.; Andersen, Morten; Bestenlehner, Joachim M.; Rubio, Monica (2022-07-26). "Resolving the Core of R136 in the Optical". The Astrophysical Journal. 935 (2): 162. arXiv: 2207.13078 . Bibcode:2022ApJ...935..162K. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac8424 . S2CID   251067072.
  8. ↑ 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 .
  9. ↑ Weigelt, G.; Baier, G. (1985). "R136a in the 30 Doradus nebula resolved by holographic speckle interferometry". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 150: L18. Bibcode:1985A&A...150L..18W.
  10. ↑ Moffat, A. F. J.; Seggewiss, W. (1983). "R136 - Supermassive star or dense core of a star cluster?". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 125: 83. Bibcode:1983A&A...125...83M.
  11. ↑ Cassinelli, J. P.; Mathis, J. S.; Savage, B. D. (1981). "Central Object of the 30 Doradus Nebula, a Supermassive Star". Science. 212 (4502): 1497–501. Bibcode:1981Sci...212.1497C. doi:10.1126/science.212.4502.1497. PMID   17790538.
  12. ↑ Crowther, Paul A.; Schnurr, Olivier; Hirschi, Raphael; Yusof, Norhasliza; Parker, Richard J.; Goodwin, Simon P.; Kassim, Hasan Abu (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: 1007.3284 . Bibcode:2010MNRAS.408..731C. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17167.x. S2CID   53001712.
  13. ↑ Banerjee, Sambaran; Kroupa, Pavel; Oh, Seungkyung (2012). "The emergence of super-canonical stars in R136-type starburst clusters". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 426 (2): 1416. arXiv: 1208.0826 . Bibcode:2012MNRAS.426.1416B. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21672.x. S2CID   119202197.
  14. ↑ Woosley, Stan. E.; Heger, Alexander (2015). "The Deaths of Very Massive Stars". Very Massive Stars in the Local Universe. Astrophysics and Space Science Library. Vol. 412. pp. 199–225. arXiv: 1406.5657 . Bibcode:2015ASSL..412..199W. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09596-7_7. ISBN   978-3-319-09595-0. S2CID   119238749.
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