http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.4804
Very massive stars (M>100 M$_{\odot}$) are very rare objects, but have a strong influence on their environment. The formation of this kind of objects is of prime importance in star formation, but observationally still poorly constrained. We report on the identification of a very massive star in the central cluster of the star-forming region W49. We investigate near-infrared K-band spectroscopic observations of W49 from VLT/ISAAC together with JHK images obtained with NTT/SOFI and LBT/LUCI. We derive a spectral type of W49nr1, the brightest star in the dense core of the central cluster of W49. On the basis of its K-band spectrum, W49nr1 is classified as an O2-3.5If* star with a K-band absolute magnitude of -6.27$\pm$0.10 mag. The effective temperature and bolometric correction are estimated from stars of similar spectral type. After comparison to the Geneva evolutionary models, we find an initial mass between 100 M$_{\odot}$ and 180 M$_{\odot}$. Varying the extinction law results in a larger initial mass range of 90 – 250 M$_{\odot}$.
S. Wu, A. Bik, T. Henning, et. al.
Mon, 21 Jul 14
46/55
Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&A Letters
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