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Massive Star Research
Research Group Leader’s Comments
Dr. Don Figer
Overview
During this year, the astronomers involved with the Massive Star research project have proposed and won
observation time targeting young stellar clusters throughout the Galaxy. The Milky Way study project group meets
on a weekly basis to plan and discuss their scientific research. The goals of the project are to discover the majority
of the massive stars in the Galaxy. With this sample, we plan to identify the most massive star in the Galaxy and
define the upper limit to the masses of stars. During the year Ben Davies and Don Figer published their findings on
newly discovered massive star clusters at the galactic center which provide the unique opportunity to study the presupernova evolution of massive stars, and the Blue- to Red-Supergiant ratio at uniform metallicity.
Research Staff
Ben Davies, Post Doctorate; PhD in Astrophysics, University of Leeds; M.S. in Physics, 2003; University of Leeds;
B.A. in Physics with Astrophysics, 2003, University of Leads
Don Figer, Director; PhD in Astronomy, UCLA, 1995; M.S.in Astronomy, University of Chicago, 1992; B.A. in
Physics, Math, Astronomy, Northwestern University, 1989
Lucy Hadfield, Post Doctorate; PhD in Astrophysics, University of Sheffield, 2006; MPhys in Physics with
Astronomy, 2003
Zoltan Makai, Data Analyst; B.S.in Astronomy, University of Szeged, 2006
Maria Messineo, Post Doctorate; PhD in Astronomy, Leiden University, 2004; M.S. in Astronomy, Bologna
University, 1997
Christine Trombley, Data Analyst; B.S. in Astrophysics and Physics, Michigan State University, 2007
Quingfeng Zhu, Post Doctorate; PhD in Astrophysics, University of Texas, 2006; M.S. Astrophysics, University of
Science and Technology of China, 1999; B.S. in Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 1996
New and current grants/contracts
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The Pre-Supernova Mass-Loss of RSGs, Aug07-July10, $80,885
The Most Massive Stars, Feb06-Feb09, $795,528
Massive Star Clusters, Aug06-Sept08, $30,000
Mid-infrared spectroscopy of Luminous Blue Variables, $21,812
Selected Publications
Campbell, M.F., Sridharan, T.K., Beuther, H., Lacy, J.H., Hora, J.L., Zhu, Q., Kassis, M., Saito,
M., DeBuizer, J.M., Fung, S.H., Johnson, L.C.,
2008. Mid-Infrared Photometry and Spectra of
Three High-Mass Protostellar Candidates at
IRAS 18151-1208 and IRAS 20343+4129,
AAS, 673, 954
Davies, B., Figer, D., Kudritzki, R. P., MacKenty,
J., Law, C. J., Najarro, F., and Herrero, A.
2008. The Scutum Red Supergiant Clusters,
Conference proceedings, Massive Stars as
Cosmic Engines, IAU Symp 250, ed. F.
Bresolin, P. A. Crowther, & J. Puls (Cambridge
Univ. Press), in press
Davies, B., Figer, D., Kudritzki, R. P., MacKenty,
J., Law, C. J., Najarro, F., and Herrero, A.
2007. A massive cluster of Red Supergiants at
the base of the Scutum-Crux arm, ApJ 671, 781
Dr. Ben Davies was the lead researcher
Davies, B., Figer, D. F., Law, C. J., Kudritzki, R.
who discovered two “supernova
P., Najarro, F., Herrero, A., and MacKenty, J.
factories”, rare clusters of Red
2007. The cool supergiant population of the
Supergiant (RSG) stars, located in the
massive young star cluster RSGC1, ApJ, 676,
Galactic Bar of the Milky Way. This
1016
image is a color composite of Cluster 1.
Davies B., Oudmaijer R.D. & Sato K.C., 2007:
Blue represents hot interstellar gas,
Integral-Field Spectroscopy of the Post Red
stars show up as green and hot dust
Supergiant IRC +10420: evidence for an axishows as red. The RSGs are the bright
symmetric wind, ApJ, 671, 2059
stars in the center.
Davies B., Vink J.S. & Oudmaijer R.D., 2007,
Modelling the clumping-induced polarimetric variability of hot star winds, A&A 469, 1045D
Figer, D. 2008. Massive Star Formation in the Galactic Center, STScI May Symposium
Figer, D. 2008. Young Massive Clusters, Conference proceedings, Massive Stars as Cosmic
Engines, IAU Symp 250, ed. F. Bresolin, P. A. Crowther, & J. Puls (Cambridge Univ. Press),
in press
Herrero, A., Marin-Franch, A., Lenorzer, A., Font, A., Najarro, F., Figer, D., and Davies, B.
2008. THE MASGOMAS PROJECT: A Spectroscopic Study of G61.48+0.09, Conference
proceedings, Massive Stars as Cosmic Engines, IAU Symp 250, ed. F. Bresolin, P. A.
Crowther, & J. Puls (Cambridge Univ.
Press), in press
Mercer, A., Chizek, M., Lang, C. C., Figer,
D. F., & Najarro, P 2007. High
Resolution Radio Observations of the
Nebulae of Luminous Blue Variable
Stars, AAS, 101
Messineo, M. and Figer, D. 2008. Candidate
Massive Galactic Stellar Clusters,
Conference proceedings, Massive Stars
as Cosmic Engines, IAU Symp 250, ed.
F. Bresolin, P. A. Crowther, & J. Puls
(Cambridge Univ. Press), in press
Patel M., Oudmaijer R.D., Vink J.S.,
Bjorkman J.E., Davies B., Groenewegen
M.A.T., Miroshnichenko A.S. &
Mottram J.C., 2008. Spectropolarimetry
of the massive post-Red Supergiants IRC
A ghostly ring stretches seven light-years
+10420 and HD 179821, MNRAS 385,
around the corpse of a massive star called
967
SGR 1900+14, as seen by NASA’s Spitzer
Slawson, R. W., Ninkov, Z., Horch, E. P.,
Space Telescope. This "stellar corpse'' is
2007. The stellar mass spectrum of the
actually a magnetar, which still slowly
open cluster NGC 3293, Ap & SS, 312,
pulsates with X-rays and continues to have a
171
super-strong magnetic pull. Dr. Don Figer
Zhu, Q., Kudritzki, R. P., Figer, D. F.,
was a co-author on the study that was reported
Najarro, F., & Merritt, D. 2008. Radial
in the May 2008 publication of Nature.
Velocities of Stars in the Galactic
Center, ApJ, in press
Zhu, Q., Lacy, J. H., Jaffe, D. T., Richter, M. J., & Greathouse, T. K. 2008. [NeII] Observations
of Gas Motions in Compact and Ultracompact HII Regions, ApJ Supplement, in press