Tarantula Nebula

H II region in the constellation Dorado

R136a1 (short for RMC 136a1) is the most massive and luminous star known, at around 291 solar masses () and around 7.2 million times the Sun's luminosity (). It is a Wolf–Rayet star at the center of R136, the central concentration of stars of the large NGC 2070 open cluster in the Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus) in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The cluster can be seen in the far southern celestial hemisphere with binoculars or a small telescope, at magnitude 7.25. R136a1 itself is 100 times fainter than the cluster and can only be resolved using speckle interferometry. ==Discovery== thumb|left|upr

star cluster

supernova remnant in the constellation Dorado

emission nebula in the constellation Dorado

R136 (formerly known as RMC 136 from the Radcliffe Observatory Magellanic Clouds catalogue) 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. The extreme number and concentration of young massive stars in this part of the LMC qualifies it as a starburst region.

contact binary star system

supernova in the constellation Dorado

star in the constellation Dorado

star cluster in the constellation Dorado

R136c is a likely binary star located in R136, a tight knot of stars at the centre of NGC 2070, an open cluster weighing 450,000 solar masses and containing 10,000 stars. At and 3.8 million , it is one of the most massive stars known and one of the most luminous, along with being one of the hottest, at over . It was first resolved and named by Feitzinger in 1980, along with R136a and R136b.

R136a2 (RMC 136a2) is a Wolf-Rayet star residing near the center of the R136, the central concentration of stars of the large NGC 2070 open cluster in the Tarantula Nebula, a massive H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud which is a nearby satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It has one of the highest confirmed masses and luminosities of any known star, at about and =5.25 million respectively.

star in the constellation Dorado

star in the constellation Dorado

R136b is a blue supergiant star in the R136 cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is one of the most massive and most luminous stars known. It is found in the dense R136 open cluster at the centre of NGC 2070 in the Tarantula Nebula.

BAT99-98 is a Wolf–Rayet star located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, in NGC 2070 near the R136 cluster in the Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus). At estimates of and , it is one of the most massive known stars, and close to one of the most luminous stars currently known.

R136a3 is a Wolf–Rayet star in R136, a massive star cluster located in Dorado. It is located near R136a1, the most massive and luminous star known. R136a3 is itself one of the most massive and most luminous stars known at about 184 times more massive and 5 million times more luminous than the Sun.

star in the constellation Dorado

open cluster in the constellation Dorado

star in the constellation Dorado

star