An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The core of the Galactic → giant H II region, → NGC 3603. It is a multiple object composed of several → massive stars with a collective → spectral type of around WN6+O5. One of the stars, → NGC 3603A-1, is a double-eclipsing binary with an orbital period of 3.77 days. The component masses are 116 Msun for the primary and 89 Msun for the secondary, respectively. The primary WN6ha component of A1 is the most massive star ever directly weighed. A second star, C, has newly been identified, which has been classified as an SB1 binary, and in which only the primary (WN6ha) component is visible. The third star, B, shows constant radial velocities over the observed time interval, and therefore is most likely not a binary. While the primary component of C might have a mass similar to or even greater than that of A1's primary, it is possible that star B, be the most massive member in NGC 3603 and, therefore, the most massive main-sequence star known in the Galaxy (Schnurr et al., 2008, MNRAS, 389, L38).

→ HD number.