The heaviest star in the Milky Way Stripped

The star Pismis 24-1 was stripped of the Milky Way's heaviest title after the new Hubble telescope's measurement method shows that it is essentially a double star.

Pismis 24-1 is a bright, young star, belonging to a very small constellation called Pismis 24, about 8,000 light-years from Earth. According to previous calculations, Pismis 24-1 can weigh 200 to 300 times the Sun.

However, the latest observations of the European Hubble Telescope Center and the Astrophysics Institute in Andalusia (Spain) show that Pismis 24-1 is essentially a double star, which can consist of two or three smaller stars. One of these three small stars weighs an average of 70 times the mass of the Sun, but they are still ranked among the top 25 " Milky Way " stars.

Scientists say super-heavy stars are " short-lived ". After several million years of existence, they will explode like shooting stars, then turn into black holes. The sun, smaller but very " long-lived ", can " live longer " than super-heavy stars 3,000 times.

Star Pismis 24-1 has been stripped of the heaviest title of the Milky Way
(Photo: swin.edu.au)