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R136
Sign in to saveR136 (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.
Key facts
- Open cluster.name
- R136
- Open cluster.image
- 280px
- Open cluster.caption
- In ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3
- Open cluster.credit
- NASA, ESA
- Open cluster.epoch
- J2000.0
- Open cluster.constellation
- Dorado
- Open cluster.dist_ly
- 157 kly
- Open cluster.dist_pc
- 48.5 kpc
- Open cluster.appmag_v
- 9.50
- Open cluster.age
- million years
- Open cluster.mass_msol
- 90,000
- Open cluster.names
- UCAC2 1803442, SAO 249329, HD 38268, TYC 9163-1014-1, CD-69 324, GC 7114
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Properties
- R136a
- Components
- Gallery
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
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.
==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. 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.