Stars may Have Upper Mass Limit |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Sunday, 22 May 2005 22:41 |
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Based on observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope, Donald F. Figer of the Space Telescope Science Institute has found that the birth masses inferred for the most massive stars in the 2-million-year-old Arches Cluster, one of the richest young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy, have a sharp cutoff. Figer believes that this cluster has not produced any stars with initial masses greater than 150 solar masses. This conclusion is consistent with studies of nine other young star clusters by a group led by Sally Oey of the University of Michigan.
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