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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 o o o o 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