R136 Explained

R136
Credit:NASA, ESA
Epoch:J2000.0
Constellation:Dorado
Ra:[1]
Dist Ly:157 kly
Dist Pc:48.5 kpc
Appmag V:9.50
Age: million years
Mass Msol:90,000
Names:UCAC2 1803442, SAO 249329, HD 38268, TYC 9163-1014-1, CD-69 324, GC 7114[2]

R136 (formerly known as RMC 136 from the Radcliffe Observatory Magellanic Clouds catalogue[3]) 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 (catalogued as HD 38268 and Wolf-Rayet star Brey 82) but is now known to include 72 class O and Wolf–Rayet stars within 5 parsecs (20 arc seconds) of the centre of the cluster.[4] The extreme number and concentration of young massive stars in this part of the LMC qualifies it as a starburst region.[5]

Properties

R136 produces most of the energy that makes the Tarantula Nebula visible. The estimated mass of the cluster is 450,000 solar masses, suggesting it may become a globular cluster in the future.[6] R136 has around 200 times the stellar density of a typical OB association such as Cygnus OB2. The central R136 concentration of the cluster is about 2 parsecs across, although the whole NGC 2070 cluster is much larger.[7]

R136 is thought to be less than 2 million years old.[7] [8] None of the member stars are significantly evolved, and none are thought to have exploded as supernova. Because of this, the cluster contains no red supergiants, blue hypergiants, or luminous blue variables. The brightest stars are WNh, O supergiants, and OIf/WN slash stars, all extremely massive fully convective stars. A small number of B-type main sequence stars have been detected in the outskirts of the cluster, but less massive and less luminous stars cannot be resolved from the dense cluster core at the large distance of the LMC.[4]

R136a

R136a is the bright knot at the centre of R136. It consists of eight extremely massive stars, three of them Wolf-Rayet stars and the rest early O-class stars.[9]

Components

The cluster contains many of the most massive and luminous stars known, including R136a1. Within the central 5 parsecs there are 32 of the hottest type O stars (O2.0–3.5), 40 other O stars, and 12 Wolf-Rayet stars, mostly of the extremely luminous WNh type. Within 150 parsecs there are a further and 19Wolf-Rayet stars.[4] Several runaway stars have been associated with R136, including VFTS 682.[10] R136 was first resolved into three components R136a, R136b, and R136c. R136a was resolved using speckle interferometry and eventually space-based observations into as many as 24 components,[11] dominated by R136a1, R136a2, and R136a3, all three being extremely massive WNh stars several million times more luminous than the sun.[12]

Basic data for the original RMC 136 a, b, and c stars! Name! Right ascension! Declination! V (F555W)! Spectral type! MV[13] (F555W)! Temperature (K)[14] ! Luminosity ! Mass
12.28 WN5h −8.18 46,000 4,677,000 196
12.80 WN5h −7.80 50,000 3,548,000 151
12.97 WN5h −7.52 50,000 3,631,000 155
R136a4 13.96 O3 V((f*))(n) −6.68 50,000 1,905,000 108
R136a5 13.71 O2I(n)f* −6.86 48,000 2,089,000 116
R136a6 13.35 O2I(n)f*p −6.46 52,000 1,738,000 105
R136a7 13.97 O3III(f*) −6.59 54,000 2,291,000 127
R136a8 14.42 O2–3V −6.05 49,500 1,479,000 96
13.24 O4If −7.70 35,500 2,239,000 92
12.86 WN5h−7.9 42,1703,802,000142[15]

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Høg . E. . Fabricius . C. . Makarov . V.V. . Urban . S. . Corbin . T. . Wycoff . G. . Bastian . U. . Schwekendiek . P. . Wicenec . A. . The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars – Letter to the Editor . Astronomy and Astrophysics . 355 . L27–L30 . January 2000 . 2000A&A...355L..27H.
  2. RMC 136.
  3. 1960MNRAS.121..337F. The brightest stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 121. 4. 337. Feast. M. W.. Thackeray. A. D.. Wesselink. A. J.. 1960. 10.1093/mnras/121.4.337. free.
  4. 1308.3412 . Doran . E. I. . The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey - XI. A census of the hot luminous stars and their feedback in 30 Doradus . Astronomy & Astrophysics . 558 . A134 . Crowther . P. A. . de Koter . A. . Evans . C. J. . McEvoy . C. . Walborn . N. R. . Bastian . N. . Bestenlehner . J. M. . Grafener . G. . Herrero . A. . Kohler . K. . Maiz Apellaniz . J. . Najarro . F. . Puls . J. . Sana . H. . Schneider . F. R. N. . Taylor . W. D. . van Loon . J. Th. . Vink . J. S. . 2013 . 10.1051/0004-6361/201321824 . 2013A&A...558A.134D . 118510909 .
  5. 10.1086/177507. Adaptive Optics Near-Infrared Imaging of R136 in 30 Doradus: The Stellar Population of a Nearby Starburst. The Astrophysical Journal. 466. 254. 1996. Brandl . B.. Sams . B. J.. Bertoldi . F.. Eckart . A.. Genzel . R.. Drapatz . S.. Hofmann . R.. Loewe . M.. Quirrenbach . A.. 1996ApJ...466..254B.
  6. Bosch . Guillermo . Terlevich, Elena. Elena Terlevich . Terlevich, Roberto . Gemini/GMOS Search for Massive Binaries in the Ionizing Cluster of 30 Dor . Astronomical Journal . 137 . 2 . 3437–3441 . 2009 . 2009AJ....137.3437B . 10.1088/0004-6256/137/2/3437. 0811.4748 . 17976455 .
  7. 10.1086/305126. Star Formation in R136: A Cluster of O3 Stars Revealed by Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy. The Astrophysical Journal. 493. 1. 180. 1998. Massey . P. . Hunter . D. A. . 1998ApJ...493..180M. free.
  8. Crowther . P. A. . Schnurr . O. . Hirschi . R. . Yusof . N. . Parker . R. J. . Goodwin . S. P. . Kassim . H. A. . 2010 . The R136 star cluster hosts several stars whose individual masses greatly exceed the accepted 150 M⊙ stellar mass limit . . 408 . 2 . 731 . 1007.3284 . 2010MNRAS.408..731C . 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17167.x . free . 53001712 .
  9. 2016MNRAS.458..624C. 1603.04994. 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. 458. 1. 624–659. Crowther. Paul A.. Caballero-Nieves. S. M.. Bostroem. K. A.. Maíz Apellániz. J.. Schneider. F. R. N.. Walborn. N. R.. Angus. C. R.. Brott. I.. Bonanos. A.. De Koter. A.. De Mink. S. E.. Selma de Mink. Evans. C. J.. Gräfener. G.. Herrero. A.. Howarth. I. D.. Langer. N.. Lennon. D. J.. Puls. J.. Sana. H.. Vink. J. S.. 2016. 10.1093/mnras/stw273. free .
  10. Banerjee . S. . Kroupa . P. . Oh . S. . 2012 . Runaway massive stars from R136: Vfts 682 is very likely a "slow runaway" . . 746 . 1 . 15 . 10.1088/0004-637X/746/1/15 . 2012ApJ...746...15B . 1111.0291 . 117959362.
  11. Campbell . B. . Hunter . D.A. . Holtzman . J.A. . Lauer . T.R. . Shayer . E.J. . Code . A. . Faber . S.M. . Groth . E.J. . Light . R.M. . Lynds . R. . O'Neil . E.J., Jr. . Westphal . J.A. . 6 . November 1992 . Hubble Space Telescope Planetary Camera images of R136 . The Astronomical Journal . 104 . 5 . 1721–1742 . 1992AJ....104.1721C . 10.1086/116355 . free .
  12. Brands . S. . de Koter . A. . Bestenlehner . J. . Crowther . P. O. 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 . 2202.11080 . 2022A&A...663A..36B . 10.1051/0004-6361/202142742 . 0004-6361. 247025548.
  13. 2020MNRAS.499.1918B . The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. II. Physical properties of the most massive stars in R136 . 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. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 2020 . 499 . 2 . 1918 . 10.1093/mnras/staa2801 . free . 2009.05136 .
  14. Kalari . Venu M. . Horch . Elliott P. . Salinas . Ricardo . Vink . Jorick S. . Andersen . Morten . Bestenlehner . Joachim M. . Rubio . Monica . 26 July 2022 . Resolving the core of R136 in the optical . The Astrophysical Journal . 935 . 2 . 162 . 10.3847/1538-4357/ac8424 . 2207.13078 . 2022ApJ...935..162K . 251067072 . free .
  15. An excess of massive stars in the local 30 Doradus starburst . 2018 . 2018Sci...359...69S . 1801.03107 . 10.1126/science.aan0106 . Science . 359 . 6371 . 69–71 . Schneider . F. R. N. . Sana . H. . Evans . C. J. . Bestenlehner . J. M. . Castro . N. . Fossati . L. . Gräfener . G. . Langer . N. . Ramírez-Agudelo . O. H. . Sabín-Sanjulián . C. . Simón-Díaz . S. . Tramper . F. . Crowther . P. A. . de Koter . A. . de Mink . S. E. . Dufton . P. L. . Garcia . M. . Gieles . M. . Hénault-Brunet . V. . Herrero . A. . Izzard . R. G. . Kalari . V. . Lennon . D. J. . Maíz Apellániz . J. . Markova . N. . Najarro . F. . Podsiadlowski . Ph. . Puls . J. . Taylor . W. D. . van Loon . J. Th. . Vink . J. S. . Norman . C. . 29302009 . 206658504 .

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