Seminar
Massive Runaway and Walkaway Stars: Space Astrometry from Gaia and Hubble

Abstract

The existence of apparently isolated massive stars has been recognized for some time, and various explanations have been proposed to explain these ranging from isolated star formation to variouscluster ejection mechanisms. In this talk I will present recent results from Gaia and Hubble on stellar dynamics within the Tarantula Nebula/30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. I will discuss how these complementary datasets have improved our knowledge of this nearby mini-starburst. The first results indicate the existence of a few stars in the region with masses ~100 solar masses that have been ejected from the central dense cluster R136. Ejection velocities appear torange from a few 10s of km/s to ~100 km/s. Given the extreme youth of R136 it is therefore likely that the mechanism of ejection was via the dynamical interaction channel rather than the binary supernova ejection scenario.