Most massive star (10 million times brightness of sun)

[Martin]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100721/ap_on_sc/eu_most_massive_star

 

I see the stars "birth weight" is estimated to have been as much as 320 solar

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1030/

 

It has already blown off a considerable amount of its initial mass and its mass is now estimated to be 265 solar.

 

The estimate of luminosity may be lower than what I originally saw in the news.

 

EDIT: The estimate of luminosity (wattage) of "near" 10 million times the sun seems to be OK. Several sources gave it. For me it is a stretch to try to imagine. Thanks to Sisyphus in post #3 for suggesting a way to imagine it---as bright as the sun is to us, but much farther away.

Edited July 22, 2010 by Martin

[Airbrush]

Wow! 265 solar masses is far greater than the second most massive star known. Stars with masses of over 100 solar are very rare.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Airbrush

[Sisyphus]

Wow!

 

So, it would appear as bright as our sun does to us at a distance of about 3150 AU, or about 1/20th of a lightyear. By contrast, the Kuiper Belt, home of frozen dwarf planets like Pluto, is about 30-55 AU from our sun.

[Martin]

Wow!

 

So, it would appear as bright as our sun does to us at a distance of about 3150 AU, or about 1/20th of a lightyear. By contrast, the Kuiper Belt, home of frozen dwarf planets like Pluto, is about 30-55 AU from our sun.

 

 

Yes! take the square root of 10 million and it is 3150. So the corresponding distance is 3150 AU. Good way to think of it, which for some reason did not occur to me. Thanks.

 

I am picturing vast schools of "solar goldfish" with photoelectric scales, swimming around in that immense spherical region approximately 3000 AU from the star. Basking in the fierce UV radiation.

A new idea of "habitable zone"----1/10 if a lightyear in diameter---for things that can live in vacuum and like to eat UltraViolet light. They would need to have evolved or been constructed elsewhere because the star is necessarily young, with a brief life expectancy.

[Ophiolite]

I am picturing vast schools of "solar goldfish" with photoelectric scales........A new idea of "habitable zone"----1/10 if a lightyear in diameter---for things that can live in vacuum and like to eat UltraViolet light. They would need to have evolved or been constructed elsewhere because the star is necessarily young, with a brief life expectancy.

Perhaps the star has been assembled to create the solar goldfishes' version of a Dyson sphere.

[Arthur Dent]

Wait... how can this be the biggest? Isn't Canis Majoris supposed to be around 2000 times the size of the sun?

 

- Robert

[Sisyphus]

Wait... how can this be the biggest? Isn't Canis Majoris supposed to be around 2000 times the size of the sun?

 

- Robert

 

That is 2000 times the diameter, yes, and hence 8000000000 times the volume. But only about 20 times the mass.

[Royston]

Wait... how can this be the biggest? Isn't Canis Majoris supposed to be around 2000 times the size of the sun?

 

- Robert

 

I think you're referring to the radius, not the mass. However, we can do a quick calculation to get an approximate value for the radius of this beast...

 

[math]L \approx 4\pi R^2 \sigma T^4[/math] so...

 

[math]R \approx \sqrt\frac{L}{4\pi \sigma T^4}[/math]

 

[math]R = \sqrt \frac{3.84 \times 10^{33} W}{4 \pi \times (5.67 \times 10^{-8} W m^{-2} K^{-4}) \times (4.0 \times 10^4 K)^4}[/math] = [math]4.055 \times 10^{10} m[/math]

 

Apart from the scale (the radius will be huge when it reaches it's red hypergiant stage), I'm more interested in how it's formed, and unfortunately my astronomy module doesn't go into enough detail on cloud fragments for exceptional cases like this...so I'll have a look around. Also, I wasn't aware that at very high masses, the resulting supernova will not leave a stellar remnant, in this case you'd think it would form a BH. It's lifetime as a main sequence star is very short indeed, so this is quite the find.

 

EDIT: Sisyphus replied while I was posting.

Edited July 22, 2010 by Snail

[Moontanman]

Perhaps the star has been assembled to create the solar goldfishes' version of a Dyson sphere.

 

 

It's going to be rough on those solar goldfish when the giant star goes super nova in a million years or so!

[Ophiolite]

It's going to be rough on those solar goldfish when the giant star goes super nova in a million years or so!

That's why my theory is scientific. I predict that about 100,000 years before this another such giant star will emerge nearby. This is where the solar goldfish will move to once they finish construction.