An excess of massive stars in the local 30 Doradus starburst

F R N Schneider; H Sana; C J Evans; J M Bestenlehner; N Castro; L Fossati; G Gräfener; N Langer; O H Ramírez-Agudelo; C Sabín-Sanjulián; S Simón-Díaz; F Tramper; P A Crowther; A de Koter; S E de Mink; P L Dufton; M Garcia; M Gieles; V Hénault-Brunet; A Herrero; R G Izzard; V Kalari; D J Lennon; J Maíz Apellániz; N Markova; F Najarro; Ph Podsiadlowski; J Puls; W D Taylor; J Th van Loon; J S Vink; C Norman

doi:10.1126/science.aan0106

An excess of massive stars in the local 30 Doradus starburst

Science. 2018 Jan 5;359(6371):69-71. doi: 10.1126/science.aan0106.

Authors

F R N Schneider¹, H Sana², C J Evans³, J M Bestenlehner^{4

5}, N Castro⁶, L Fossati⁷, G Gräfener⁸, N Langer⁸, O H Ramírez-Agudelo³, C Sabín-Sanjulián⁹, S Simón-Díaz^{10

11}, F Tramper¹², P A Crowther⁵, A de Koter^{13

2}, S E de Mink¹³, P L Dufton¹⁴, M Garcia¹⁵, M Gieles¹⁶, V Hénault-Brunet^{17

18}, A Herrero^{10

11}, R G Izzard^{16

19}, V Kalari²⁰, D J Lennon¹², J Maíz Apellániz²¹, N Markova²², F Najarro¹⁵, Ph Podsiadlowski^{1

8}, J Puls²³, W D Taylor³, J Th van Loon²⁴, J S Vink²⁵, C Norman^{26

27}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK.
² Institute of Astrophysics, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
³ UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK.
⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK.
⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 1085 South University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
⁷ Austrian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute, Schmiedlstraße 6, 8042 Graz, Austria.
⁸ Argelander-Institut für Astronomie der Universität Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany.
⁹ Departamento de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena, Avenida Juan Cisternas no. 1200 Norte, La Serena, Chile.
¹⁰ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
¹¹ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.
¹² European Space Astronomy Centre, Mission Operations Division, P.O. Box 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain.
¹³ Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, Amsterdam University, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands.
¹⁴ Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK.
¹⁵ Centro de Astrobiología, CSIC-INTA, Carretera de Torrejón a Ajalvir km-4, E-28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁶ Department of Physics, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK.
¹⁷ National Research Council, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, British Columbia V9E 2E7, Canada.
¹⁸ Department of Astrophysics/Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, NL-6500 GL Nijmegen, Netherlands.
¹⁹ Institute of Astronomy, The Observatories, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK.
²⁰ Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Chile, Camino El Observatorio 1515, Las Condes, Santiago, Casilla 36-D, Chile.
²¹ Centro de Astrobiología, CSIC-INTA, European Space Astronomy Centre campus, camino bajo del castillo s/n, E-28 692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain.
²² Institute of Astronomy with National Astronomical Observatory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 136, 4700 Smoljan, Bulgaria.
²³ Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Universitätssternwarte, Scheinerstrasse 1, 81679 München, Germany.
²⁴ Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK.
²⁵ Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, Northern Ireland, UK.
²⁶ Johns Hopkins University, Homewood Campus, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
²⁷ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.

PMID: 29302009
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan0106

Abstract

The 30 Doradus star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud is a nearby analog of large star-formation events in the distant universe. We determined the recent formation history and the initial mass function (IMF) of massive stars in 30 Doradus on the basis of spectroscopic observations of 247 stars more massive than 15 solar masses ([Formula: see text]). The main episode of massive star formation began about 8 million years (My) ago, and the star-formation rate seems to have declined in the last 1 My. The IMF is densely sampled up to 200 [Formula: see text] and contains 32 ± 12% more stars above 30 [Formula: see text] than predicted by a standard Salpeter IMF. In the mass range of 15 to 200 [Formula: see text], the IMF power-law exponent is [Formula: see text], shallower than the Salpeter value of 2.35.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Grants and funding

European Research Council/International