Other
Scientific paper
Dec 1986
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986newsc.112...38h&link_type=abstract
New Scientist (ISSN 0028-6664), vol. 112, Dec. 11, 1986, p. 38-41.
Other
Hot Stars, Magellanic Clouds, Nebulae, Star Clusters, Stellar Mass, Supermassive Stars, Critical Mass, Galactic Nuclei, Magnetohydrodynamic Stability, Star Formation, Wolf-Rayet Stars
Scientific paper
The observational and theoretical status regarding present understanding of possible superheavy stars, hundreds or even thousands of times as massive as the sun, is examined. Recent work on vibrational stability suggests that stars of up to 130 solar masses will be stable while stars heavier than 1000 solar masses would be violently unstable. R136a in 30 Doradus (the Tarantula nebula), located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, could be such a supermassive star (up to 2000 or 3000 solar masses), and it has now been demonstrated to consist of a compact cluster of eight massive stars within a volume of space less than 1 lightyear across. It apparently resembles NGC 3603, containing at the center bright objects that include O-type stars and Wolf-Rayet stars. The brightest component, R136a-sub-1, is no heavier than 250 suns. Studies of another massive object, eta Carinae, showing that it may consist of two to four stars only 0.006 lightyear apart, are also recounted.
Davidson Kris
Humphreys Roberta
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