Plaskett’s Star
Plaskett’s Star (HR 2422) is a spectroscopic binary at a distance of around 6600 light-years. It is one of the most massive binary stars known, with a total mass of around one hundred times that of the Sun. Indeed, it was long thought to be the most massive known binary system, but evidence collected between 1996–2005 demonstrated that Eta Carinae, which was previously thought to be a massive individual star, is a binary system.
This system is named after John Stanley Plaskett, the Canadian astronomer who discovered its binary nature in 1922. Plaskett was assisted in his observations by his son, Harry Hemley Plaskett. The pair have a combined visual magnitude of 6.05, and is located in the constellation of Monoceros.
The orbital period for the pair is 14.39625 ± 0.00095 days. The secondary is a rapid rotator with a projected rotational velocity of 300 km sec–1,giving it a pronounced equatorial bulge.
Sourced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaskett’s_star
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