R136c
 The bright star to the left of the cluster core is R136c. |
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| Observation data Epoch J2000.0 Equinox J2000.0 |
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|---|---|
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Right ascension | 5h 38m 42.90s[1] |
| Declination | −69° 06′ 04.83″[1] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 12.86[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Evolutionary stage | Wolf-Rayet star |
| Spectral type | WN5h[2] |
| Astrometry | |
| Distance | 163,000 ly (49,970[3] pc) |
| Absolute magnitude (MV) | −7.9[1] |
| Details[2] | |
| Mass | 230 M☉ |
| Radius | 18.4[4] R☉ |
| Luminosity | 5,623,000 L☉ |
| Temperature | 51,000 K |
| Age | ~1.7[5] Myr |
| Other designations | |
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BAT99 112, RMC 136c
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| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
R136c is located in the R136 super star cluster, a massive star cluster with 450,000 solar masses and 10,000 stars. It was first resolved and named by Feitzinger in 1980, along with R136a and R136b.[6]
Description
R136c is a Wolf-Rayet star of the spectral type WN5h and with a temperature of 51,000 K. It is 230 times the mass of the sun and over five million times more luminous. The extreme luminosity is produced by the CNO fusion process in its highly compressed hot core. Typical of all Wolf-Rayet stars, R136c has been losing mass by means of a strong stellar wind with speeds over 2,000 km/s and mass loss rates in excess of 10−5 solar masses per year.[5] It is strongly suspected to be a binary, due to the detection of hard x-ray emission typical of colliding wind binaries, but the companion is thought to make only a small contribution to the total luminosity.[4]
Death
R136c is so energetic that it has already lost a substantial fraction of its initial mass, even though it is only a few million years old. It is still effectively on the main sequence, fusing hydrogen at its core via the CNO cycle, but it has convected and mixed fusion products to the surface and these create a powerful stellar wind and emission spectrum normally only seen in highly evolved stars.[5]
Its fate depends on the amount of mass it loses before its core collapses, but is likely to result in a supernova. The most recent models for single star evolution at near-solar metallicities suggest that the most massive stars explode as highly stripped type Ic supernovae, although different outcomes are possible for binaries. Some of these supernovae are expected to produce a type of gamma-ray burst and the expected remnant is a black hole.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
