Massive stars may not be as “giant” as previously thought

Dr. Rubio adds that getting these results required more than a year of research using the Gemini South Telescope, located in Cerro Pachón in the Coquimbo Region, in which Chile participates through the observation time for national astronomers administered by the National Agency for Research and Development, ANID. “It was the large 8.1m mirror and the instrument called “Zorro” that allowed us to take the sharpest optical images that can be taken from the ground today, revealing that where we thought there was only one star, there are actually several.

Rubio also explains that the next step will be to continue with this research and determine the properties of these stars, since they are not as massive as previously thought, “it could imply that perhaps the first stars in the universe were not as massive as the models require”, says the astronomer. “This can be elucidated with future observations only possible with the James Webb Telescope,” she adds.

Also participating in this work were Venu Kalari, who is the lead author of the paper, and Ricardo Salinas, an astronomer at the Gemini South observatory in the Coquimbo Region, in addition to the collaboration of Chilean engineers from the observatory, together with a team from NASA. The results were published under the title “Resolving the core of R136 in the optical”, published in the latest edition of the Astrophysical Journal.