R136c facts for kids
R136c is an incredibly huge and bright star found in a giant cloud of gas and dust called the Tarantula Nebula. This nebula is a busy "star factory" where many new stars are forming. R136c is part of a special group of stars within the nebula called R136, and it's one of the most massive stars we know!
.jpg) The bright star to the left of the cluster core is R136c. |
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| Observation data Epoch J2000.0 Equinox J2000.0 |
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|---|---|
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Right ascension | 5h 38m 42.90s |
| Declination | −69° 06′ 04.83″ |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 12.86 |
| Characteristics | |
| Evolutionary stage | Wolf-Rayet star |
| Spectral type | WN5h |
| Astrometry | |
| Distance | 163,000 ly (49,970 pc) |
| Absolute magnitude (MV) | −7.9 |
| Details | |
| Mass | 230 M☉ |
| Radius | 18.4 R☉ |
| Luminosity | 5,623,000 L☉ |
| Temperature | 51,000 K |
| Age | ~1.7 Myr |
| Other designations | |
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BAT99 112, RMC 136c
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| Database references | |
| SIMBAD | data |
Contents
What is R136c?
R136c is a special kind of star called a Wolf–Rayet star. These stars are super hot and very bright. They also lose a lot of their material into space very quickly.
A Giant Star
R136c is truly enormous! It is about 230 times heavier than our own Sun. Imagine how much energy that is! It shines with the light of over 5.6 million Suns. This incredible brightness comes from a powerful process happening deep inside the star.
Super Hot and Young
This star is also incredibly hot, with a surface temperature of 51,000 degrees Celsius. To give you an idea, our Sun's surface is about 5,500 degrees Celsius. R136c is also very young, only about 1.7 million years old. Our Sun is about 4.6 billion years old!
Losing Material
Even though it's so big, R136c is constantly losing parts of itself. It has strong "stellar winds," which are like powerful breaths of gas blowing away from its surface. Scientists think R136c might even be a binary star system. This means it could be two stars orbiting each other very closely. If so, their winds would crash into each other, creating X-rays.
What Happens Next?
Stars like R136c have a dramatic end. Because they are so massive, they don't just fade away.
A Giant Explosion
R136c will likely end its life in a massive explosion called a supernova. Sometimes, these explosions can be even bigger, called hypernovas, or they can release powerful bursts of energy called gamma-ray bursts.
Becoming a Black Hole
After such a huge explosion, what's left of R136c will most likely become a black hole. A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. The exact way R136c ends depends on how much material it loses during its life.
Discovery of R136c
R136c was first spotted by astronomers in 1996. It was found using the Radcliffe Observatory in South Africa. It can be seen near the center of the R136 star cluster.
