Big and Giant Stars: HD 148937 (original) (raw)

The heavy blue supergiant is surrounded by a self-ejected nebula. This ejection began about 4000 years ago. Already after half of its life-span HD 148937 has left the main sequence and is now in an evolutionary state where only very few stars are known to us. In further 3 or 4 million years it will explode as a supernova.

Constellation: Norma
Age: 3 - 4 million years
Distance: 4200 light-years
Spectral class: O7
Visual magnitude: 6.77
Mass: 40 * Sun
Radial velocity: -53.9 km/sec

Back: List of big and giant stars part 2

06/08/2006

Photo: Travis Rector University of Alaska Anchorage