Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy

Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

On May 28, 7:31*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

Perhaps it got peckish and ate its cluster?

On 5/28/11 12:31 AM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey III: A very massive star in apparent
isolation from the massive cluster R136
http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.1775

Joachim M. Bestenlehner, Jorick S. Vink, G. Gräfener, F. Najarro, C. J.
Evans, N. Bastian, A. Z. Bonanos, E. Bressert, P. A. Crowther, E. Doran,
K. Friedrich, V. Hénault-Brunet, A. Herrero, A. de Koter, N. Langer, D.
J. Lennon, J. Maíz Apellániz, H. Sana, I. Soszynski, W. D. Taylor
(Submitted on 9 May 2011)

VFTS 682 is located in an active star-forming region, at a projected
distance of 29 pc from the young massive cluster R136 in the Tarantula
Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was previously reported as a
candidate young stellar object, and more recently spectroscopically
revealed as a hydrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet (WN5h) star. Our aim is to obtain
the stellar properties, such as its intrinsic luminosity, and to
investigate the origin of VFTS 682. To this purpose, we model optical
spectra from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey with the non-LTE stellar
atmosphere code CMFGEN, as well as the spectral energy distribution from
complementary optical and infrared photometry. We find the extinction
properties to be highly peculiar (RV ~4.7), and obtain a surprisingly
high luminosity log(L/Lsun) = 6.5 \pm 0.2, corresponding to a
present-day mass of ~150Msun. The high effective temperature of 52.2 \pm
2.5kK might be explained by chemically homogeneous evolution - suggested
to be the key process in the path towards long gamma-ray bursts.
Lightcurves of the object show variability at the 10% level on a
timescale of years. Such changes are unprecedented for classical
Wolf-Rayet stars, and are more reminiscent of Luminous Blue Variables.
Finally, we discuss two possibilities for the origin of VFTS 682: (i)
the star either formed in situ, which would have profound implications
for the formation mechanism of massive stars, or (ii) VFTS 682 is a slow
runaway star that originated from the dense cluster R136, which would
make it the most massive runaway known to date.

On May 28, 5:48*am, "Chris.B" wrote:
On May 28, 7:31*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

Perhaps it got peckish and ate its cluster?

In our galaxy we have such a star only 8 thousand LY away. Astronomers
say its to close for comfort. If it exploded 8 thousand LY ago 2012
will be the year it fries Earth Go figure TreBert

On 5/28/11 7:39 AM, herbert glazier wrote:
On May 28, 5:48 am, wrote:
On May 28, 7:31 am, Yousuf wrote:

Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy& Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

Perhaps it got peckish and ate its cluster?

In our galaxy we have such a star only 8 thousand LY away. Astronomers
say its to close for comfort. If it exploded 8 thousand LY ago 2012
will be the year it fries Earth Go figure TreBert

There are no known threatening stars near to the earth including Eta
Carina.

On 05/28/2011 05:48 AM, Chris.B wrote:
On May 28, 7:31 am, Yousuf wrote:
Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy& Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

Perhaps it got peckish and ate its cluster?

It actually looks like it was kicked out of its own cluster, by even
more massive stars! It just goes to show, no matter how big you are,
there's always something bigger around the corner.

Yousuf Khan

On May 28, 5:44*am, Sam Wormley wrote:
On 5/28/11 7:39 AM, herbert glazier wrote:









On May 28, 5:48 am, *wrote:
On May 28, 7:31 am, Yousuf *wrote:

Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy& *Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

Perhaps it got peckish and ate its cluster?

In our galaxy we have such a star only 8 thousand LY away. Astronomers
say its to close for comfort. If it exploded 8 thousand LY ago 2012
will be the year it fries Earth *Go figure *TreBert

* *There are no known threatening stars near to the earth including Eta
* *Carina.

Sirius(B) used to be an extremely large and nearby threat, and it
seems our solar system got the results of that roughly 65 million
years ago. Even if having sufficient warning, could we survive a
similar event of a massive nearby star evolving into a red supergiant,
and then suddenly becoming a white dwarf?

http://www.wanttoknow.info/
http://translate.google.com/#
Brad Guth, Brad_Guth, Brad.Guth, BradGuth, BG / “Guth Usenet”

On May 28, 11:08*am, Yousuf Khan wrote:
On 05/28/2011 05:48 AM, Chris.B wrote:

On May 28, 7:31 am, Yousuf *wrote:
Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy& *Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

Perhaps it got peckish and ate its cluster?

It actually looks like it was kicked out of its own cluster, by even
more massive stars! It just goes to show, no matter how big you are,
there's always something bigger around the corner.

* * * * Yousuf Khan

Actually, very recently there was a story about a heavy high-speed
runaway star, see this...

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hu...away-star.html

.... and the details in this story agree with what you have said. This
article may be talking about the same star, but its designation is not
actually given.

\Paul A

On May 28, 5:38*am, Sam Wormley wrote:
On 5/28/11 12:31 AM, Yousuf Khan wrote:

Discovery of a Very Massive, Isolated Star in a Nearby Galaxy | SpaceRef
- Your Space Reference
"Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the discovery of a very massive,
isolated star in a galaxy near our Milky Way. Located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the star VFTS 682 is one of the more massive
stars ever known, because it is about 150 times the mass of the Sun. But
the major surprise is that the star lies on its own and is not a member
of a dense star cluster."
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=33686

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey III: A very massive star in apparent
isolation from the massive cluster R136http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.1775

Joachim M. Bestenlehner, Jorick S. Vink, G. Gr fener, F. Najarro, C. J.
Evans, N. Bastian, A. Z. Bonanos, E. Bressert, P. A. Crowther, E. Doran,
K. Friedrich, V. H nault-Brunet, A. Herrero, A. de Koter, N. Langer, D.
J. Lennon, J. Ma z Apell niz, H. Sana, I. Soszynski, W. D. Taylor
(Submitted on 9 May 2011)

VFTS 682 is located in an active star-forming region, at a projected
distance of 29 pc from the young massive cluster R136 in the Tarantula
Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It was previously reported as a
candidate young stellar object, and more recently spectroscopically
revealed as a hydrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet (WN5h) star. Our aim is to obtain
the stellar properties, such as its intrinsic luminosity, and to
investigate the origin of VFTS 682. To this purpose, we model optical
spectra from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey with the non-LTE stellar
atmosphere code CMFGEN, as well as the spectral energy distribution from
complementary optical and infrared photometry. We find the extinction
properties to be highly peculiar (RV ~4.7), and obtain a surprisingly
high luminosity log(L/Lsun) = 6.5 \pm 0.2, corresponding to a
present-day mass of ~150Msun. The high effective temperature of 52.2 \pm
2.5kK might be explained by chemically homogeneous evolution - suggested
to be the key process in the path towards long gamma-ray bursts.
Lightcurves of the object show variability at the 10% level on a
timescale of years. Such changes are unprecedented for classical
Wolf-Rayet stars, and are more reminiscent of Luminous Blue Variables.
Finally, we discuss two possibilities for the origin of VFTS 682: (i)
the star either formed in situ, which would have profound implications
for the formation mechanism of massive stars, or (ii) VFTS 682 is a slow
runaway star that originated from the dense cluster R136, which would
make it the most massive runaway known to date.

Any 150 Ms star isn't going to last very long, and it's probably a
forth generation star of considerable metallicity at that. When it
goes into the red supergiant phase, it'll be extremely large and
impressive.

The LMC of perhaps 2e11 Ms is hosting a very substantial star of 150
Ms (VFTS 682), and assuming dozens of others greater than 25 Ms
shouldn’t be any surprise.

Any molecular cloud of 2e11 Ms should have the mass required for
creating thousands if not a million substantial main sequence stars of
1 Ms or larger, plus millions of red and brown dwarfs shouldn’t be
unreasonable, especially considering the local nova and supernova
potentials that’ll allow as little as 1e3 Ms molecular gas to form a
star.

This LMC could become a pocket galaxy within our Milky Way, especially
if other molecular mass is encountered and assimilated into the LMC.
The tidal reach of the LMC can’t be any too insignificant either, so
as to reaching out and grabbing onto anything that’s within 4r isn’t
going to get away unless it’s velocity and trajectory are significant
enough.

No doubt the LMC has its own black hole(s) and otherwise the LMC is
seemingly surrounded by a considerable halo of dark matter. VFTS 682
will likely turn into another black hole within a few million years,
and the metallicity of 4th+ generation stars has to be considerable.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/
http://translate.google.com/#
Brad Guth, Brad_Guth, Brad.Guth, BradGuth, BG / “Guth Usenet”

On 5/28/11 1:29 PM, Brad Guth wrote:
Sirius(B) used to be an extremely large and nearby threat, and it
seems our solar system got the results of that roughly 65 million
years ago. Even if having sufficient warning, could we survive a
similar event of a massive nearby star evolving into a red supergiant,
and then suddenly becoming a white dwarf?

"Sirius B is the chief member of a trio of classic white dwarfs, the
others Procyon B and 40 Eridani B. Its high mass and tiny radius lead to
an amazing average density of 1.7 metric tons per cubic centimeter,
roughly a sugar cube. White dwarfs are the end products of ordinary
stars like the Sun, tiny remnants that were once nuclear-fusing cores
that have run out of fuel. Most are balls of carbon and oxygen whose
fates are merely to cool forever. To have evolved first, Sirius B must
once have been more massive and luminous than Sirius A. That its mass is
now lower is proof that stars lose considerable mass as they die. Given
the mass of the white dwarf and the 250 million year age of the system,
Sirius B may once have been a hot class B3-B5 star that could have
contained as much as 5 to 7 solar masses, the star perhaps losing over
80 percent of itself back into interstellar space through earlier
winds". Ref: http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sirius.html

The Sun has circled the galaxy in 250 million years. There is no
indication that the solar system was anywhere near the Sirius system
even a few hundred thousand years ago.