APOD: A Massive Star in NGC 6357 (2010 Nov 21)

[jacobfogg]

Seriously, some of the pictures that have been posted in these last few days have literally moved me to tears by the grand beauty and majesty of our universe! I know that many won't agree with this statement, but I must say that I am in complete awe of what our God has created!!!

[NoelC]

-Noel

[bystander]

The Greatest Stars | NASA IOTD | 10 Dec 2010

Click to view full size image

The small open star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the NGC 6357 nebula in Scorpius, about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. The brightest object in the center of this image is designated Pismis 24-1 and was once thought to weigh as much as 200 to 300 solar masses. This would not only have made it by far the most massive known star in the galaxy, but would have put it considerably above the currently believed upper mass limit of about 150 solar masses for individual stars.

However, Hubble Space Telescope high-resolution images of the star show that it is really two stars orbiting one another that are each estimated to be 100 solar masses.

In addition, spectroscopic observations with ground-based telescopes further reveal that one of the stars is actually a tight binary that is too compact to be resolved even by Hubble. This divides the estimated mass for Pismis 24-1 among the three stars. Although the stars are still among the heaviest known, the mass limit has not been broken due to the multiplicity of the system.

The images of NGC 6357 were taken with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in April 2002.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

Star on a Hubble diet
ESA Hubble Science Release | heic0619 | 11 Dec 2006

[jo]

i think this is one of the most stunning images so far....or that I've seen so far!! Can anyone tell me if any of these images are avavilable to the general pulic as, say, posters or something similar...I could look at this one for hours...thank you APOD for opening up a whole new universe to me...I have wanted to go "out there" for as long as I can remember...I'm way too old now but at least I can look at these amazing imges and dream....Magic.

[neufer]

I had also wondered about the name Pismis, so it is good to know it is named after Mr Pismis.

Is there a Mrs Pismis

• Mrs. Paris Pişmiş : http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 21#p187806