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Most massive star has a companion

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From Times Staff and Wire Reports

Canadian astronomers have identified the most massive star ever discovered, with 114 times the mass of the sun. The star is part of a binary system called A1 in a young star cluster called NGC 3603, in the southern Milky Way about 20,000 light-years away. The star’s companion is also huge, with a mass 84 times that of the sun.

The pair orbit each other every 3.77 days, the team from the University of Montreal reported Wednesday at a meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society.

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