Star Formation in R136: A Cluster of O3 Stars Revealed by HST Spectroscopy.

Details Star Formation in R136: A Cluster of O3 Stars Revealed by HST Spectroscopy. Star Formation in R136: A Cluster of O3 Stars Revealed by HST Spectroscopy.

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997aas...191.0610m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 191st AAS Meeting, #06.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 29, p.1218

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Scientific paper

R136 is the extremely populous star cluster at the heart of the 30 Doradus nebula. We have obtained HST/FOS spectra of 65 of the brightest blue stars to investigate the massive star population of this prototype ``super star cluster", probably what a very young globular cluster would resemble. We find that over half the stars in our sample are of spectral type O3, the hottest, most luminous and massive subclass. We have identified more O3 stars in this remarkable cluster than were previously known elsewhere. The age of R136 is very young, <1-2 Myr. Despite the preponderance of so many high mass stars, we find that the IMF is completely normal, with a Salpeter slope (Gamma =-1.3+/-0.1) extending from 2.8 cal M_sun to >100 cal M_sun. The most massive stars are well above the highest mass tracks available (120 cal M_sun), and a conservative estimate places the highest mass star at ~ 150cal M_sun, making this the highest mass unevolved star yet found. Comparing this to other clusters suggests that we have yet to encounter any physical limit to how massive a star may form in nature, that the only limit we see is a statistical one, depending upon the richness (and age) of the cluster.

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