ESO’s VLT Finds a Brilliant but Solitary Superstar
ARMAGH, Northern Ireland, May 26, 2011 — Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found that the star VFTS 682 is about 150 times the mass of the sun. But unlike other massive stars that have thus far been found only in the crowded centers of star clusters, VFTS 682 lies on its own within the Large Magellanic Cloud. "We were very surprised to find such a massive star on its own, and not in a rich star cluster," said Joachim Bestenlehner, the lead author of a study revealing detail...