THE two most massive stars ever found are circling each other 20,000 light years away near the centre of the Milky Way.
Anthony Moffat of the University of Montreal in Canada announced the discovery of the binary star system, called A1, last week. Even the smaller of the duo, at 84 solar masses, is bigger than the previous record holders. The larger weighs 114 solar masses.
鈥淚鈥檓 astonished and very curious,鈥� says astrophysicist John Brown of the University of Glasgow, UK. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 think stars that big could exist 鈥� they should blow themselves to pieces.鈥� That鈥檚 because the more massive a star, the more radiation it generates inside its core, which increases the pressure on the star鈥檚 outer layers until it eventually explodes.
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