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New Optical Observations of R136

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

You-Hua Chu*
Affiliation:
Washburn Observatory, University of Wisconsin at Madison

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R136 is the luminous central object of the 30 Doradus nebula in the LMC. Its bluest and brightest component R136a has been interpreted as a supermassive star with a mass of approximately 2000 M, based on its unusual UV spectral properties and the assumption that it is responsible for most of the ionization of the 30 Dor nebula (Feitzinger et al. 1980; Cassinelli et al. 1981; Savage et al. 1983). On the other hand, R136a has also been argued to be the core of a dense cluster, since the integrated light distribution from 0.2 to 22 pc radius centered on R136a is similar to that of a globular cluster (Moffat and Seggewiss 1983), and its optical spectrum can be synthesized by its nearby early-type stars (Melnick 1983).

Type
30 Doradus and R136
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1984 

References

Cassinelli, J.P., Mathis, J.S., and Savage, B.D. 1981, Science, 212, 1497.Google Scholar
Feitzinger, J.V., Schlosser, W., Schmidt-Kaler, Th., and Winkler, C. 1980, Astr. Ap., 84, 50.Google Scholar
Melnick, J. 1983, The Messenger, No. 32, p. 11.Google Scholar
Moffat, A.F.J. and Seggewiss, W. 1983, Astr. Ap., 125, 83 Google Scholar
Savage, B.D., Fitzpatrick, E.L., Cassinelli, J.P., and Ebbets, D.C. 1983, Ap. J., in press.Google Scholar