R136a1

A near infrared image of the R136 cluster. R136a1 is at the center with R136a2 close by, R136a3 below right, and R136b to the left. ESO/VLT

The Tarantula nebula

R136a1 is one of the most massive and luminous known stars.^[1] It is a Wolf–Rayet star at the center of R136.

R136 is the central group of stars of the large NGC 2070 open cluster in the Tarantula nebula. The nebula lies about 50 kiloparsecs (163,000 light-years) in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

R136a1 has nearly 200 the mass of the Sun, and 4.7 million times its luminosity.^[2] It is also one of the hottest at over 50,000 K.^[3] The cluster is only about 1.5 million years old, and is pouring out a huge amount of energy. Together, they outshine our Sun by a factor of 30 million.^[1]

The star is the largest of nine huge stars in the cluster.

R136a1 Media

Zooming in from the Tarantula Nebula to the R136 cluster, with R136a1/2/3 visible as the barely resolved knot at bottom right
Sky position of R136a1 viewed from Argentina
Sharpest image ever of R136a1, right at the centre of this image, resolving a close companion
Comparison of main sequence stars
Left to right: a red dwarf, the Sun, a B-type main sequence star, and R136a1
The colour of a 46,000 K blackbody
A size comparison between R136a1 and the Sun
The R136 cluster in a massive star forming region in the LMC
Predicted supernova remnants by star initial mass and metallicity

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 An outstanding illustration is at Amos, Jonathan 2016. Hubble telescope spies stellar 'land of giants'. BBC News Science & Environment. [1]
↑ Kalari, Venu M.; Horch, Elliott P.; Salinas, Ricardo; Vink, Jorick S.; Andersen, Morten; Bestenlehner, Joachim M.; Rubio, Monica (2022-08-01). "Resolving the core of R136 in the optical". The Astrophysical Journal. 935 (2): 162. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac8424. ISSN 0004-637X.
↑ Crowther P.A. et al 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. [2]

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[BBC-1] 1.0 ^1.1 An outstanding illustration is at Amos, Jonathan 2016. Hubble telescope spies stellar 'land of giants'. BBC News Science & Environment. [1]

[2] Kalari, Venu M.; Horch, Elliott P.; Salinas, Ricardo; Vink, Jorick S.; Andersen, Morten; Bestenlehner, Joachim M.; Rubio, Monica (2022-08-01). "Resolving the core of R136 in the optical". The Astrophysical Journal. 935 (2): 162. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac8424. ISSN 0004-637X.

[Paul-3] Crowther P.A. et al 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. [2]

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