The universe’s most massive star has gotten its best close-up yet, revealing that the star may be smaller than previously thought by astronomers.
Astronomers using the Gemini South telescope in Chile photographed the star R136a1located at its center, about 160,000 light-years from Earth Tarantula Nebula inside Large Magellanic Cloud — A dwarf companion galaxy of the Milky Way. Their observations suggest that the giant star (and others like it) may not be as large as previously thought.
“Astronomers do not yet fully understand how stars with a mass greater than 100 times the mass of the Sun form.” and expressions (opens in new tab) From the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) NOIRLab, which operates the Gemini South telescope. “A particularly challenging piece of this puzzle is obtaining observations of these giants, which typically inhabit the densely populated hearts of dust-covered star clusters.”
Related: What Is The Biggest Star?
Gemini South’s Zorro instrument uses a technique known as speckle imaging, which combines thousands of short exposure images of stars in the depths. Universe to eliminate the blur effect earth atmosphere. This technique allowed astronomers to more accurately distinguish the brightness of R136a1 from its nearby stellar companions, providing the sharpest image ever of the giant star.
Previous observations suggested that R136a1 is 250 to 320 times larger than the mass of R136a1. Sunnew Zorro observations show that the mass of the giant star could be closer to 170 to 230 times the mass of the sun – making it still the largest known star.
“Our results show us that the most massive star we currently know is not as massive as we previously thought,” Venu M. Kalari, lead author of the study and astronomer at NSF’s NOIRLab, said in a statement. Said. “This suggests that the upper limit of stellar masses may also be smaller than previously thought.”
AND star’s brightness and temperature depend on mass. In other words, more massive stars appear brighter and hotter. The astronomers estimated the mass of R136a1 by comparing its observed brightness and temperature with theoretical predictions. Because the new Zorro images more accurately distinguish R136a1’s brightness from its nearby stellar companions, astronomers were able to predict that the star has a lower luminosity and therefore a lower mass than previous measurements, according to the annotation.
Massive stars like R136a1 grow rapidly, burning up their fuel reserves in just a few million years, then dying fiery deaths. supernova explosions, which seed galaxies with heavy elements responsible for the formation of new stars and planets. This is the fate of most stars with more than 150 times the mass of the Sun. However, the researchers noted that supernovas may also be rarer than expected if stellar masses are smaller than previously thought.
Study accepted for publication (opens in new tab) in the Astrophysical Journal.
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