VFTS 243

VFTS 243 (2MASS J05380840-6909190) is an O7V type main sequence star that orbits a stellar mass black hole.^[7] The black hole is around nine times the mass of the Sun, with the blue star being 25 times the mass of the Sun making the star 200,000 times larger than the black hole. VFTS 243 is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud inside NGC 2070 (the Tarantula Nebula) around 160,000 light years from Earth.^[8][5] The binary has an orbital period of 10.4 days.^[4]

VFTS 243

VFTS 243 in Hubble Space Telescope colours
Observation data Epoch J2000.0      Equinox J2000.0 (ICRS)
Constellation	Dorado
Right ascension	05h 38m 08.407s[1]
Declination	−69° 09′ 18.98″[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)	15.26[2]
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage	main sequence + black hole
Spectral type	O7V(n)((f))[3]
Variable type	variable[4]
Astrometry
Proper motion (μ)	RA: +1.722 mas/yr[1] Dec.: +0.603 mas/yr[1]
Parallax (π)	−0.0468 ± 0.0244 mas[1]
Orbit[4]
Period (P)	10.4031 days
Eccentricity (e)	0.017
Inclination (i)	≥ 40°
Semi-amplitude (K1) (primary)	81.4 km/s
Details[4]
star
Mass	25 M☉
Radius	10.3 R☉
Luminosity	158,000 L☉
Surface gravity (log g)	3.7 cgs
Temperature	36,000 K
Rotational velocity (v sin i)	181 km/s
Age	7.4 Myr
black hole
Mass	10.1 M☉
Other designations
TIC 277299822, 2MASS J05380840-6909190[5]
Database references
SIMBAD	data

Artist's impression of VFTS 243^[6]

References

1. Vallenari, A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (2023). "Gaia Data Release 3. Summary of the content and survey properties". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 674: A1. arXiv:2208.00211. Bibcode:2023A&A...674A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202243940. S2CID 244398875. Gaia DR3 record for this source at VizieR.
2. Evans, C. J.; Taylor, W. D.; Hénault-Brunet, V.; Sana, H.; De Koter, A.; et al. (June 2011). "The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey. I. Introduction and observational overview". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 530: A108. arXiv:1103.5386. Bibcode:2011A&A...530A.108E. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201116782. S2CID 54501763.
3. Walborn, N. R.; Sana, H.; Simón-Díaz, S.; Maíz Apellániz, J.; Taylor, W. D.; Evans, C. J.; Markova, N.; Lennon, D. J.; De Koter, A. (2014). "The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey. XIV. The O-type stellar content of 30 Doradus". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 564: A40. arXiv:1402.6969. Bibcode:2014A&A...564A..40W. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201323082. S2CID 119302111.
4. Shenar, Tomer; Sana, Hugues; Mahy, Laurent; El-Badry, Kareem; Marchant, Pablo; Langer, Norbert; Hawcroft, Calum; Fabry, Matthias; Sen, Koushik; Almeida, Leonardo A.; Abdul-Masih, Michael; Bodensteiner, Julia; Crowther, Paul A.; Gieles, Mark; Gromadzki, Mariusz (2022-07-18). "An X-ray-quiet black hole born with a negligible kick in a massive binary within the Large Magellanic Cloud". Nature Astronomy. 6 (9): 1085–1092. arXiv:2207.07675. Bibcode:2022NatAs...6.1085S. doi:10.1038/s41550-022-01730-y. ISSN 2397-3366. S2CID 250626810.
5. "VFTS 243". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2022-09-13.
6. "'Black hole police' discover a dormant black hole outside our galaxy". European Southern Observatory. 18 July 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
7. Stevance, H. F.; Ghodla, S.; Richards, S.; Eldridge, J. J.; Briel, M. M.; Tang, P. (2023). "VFTS 243 as predicted by the BPASS fiducial models". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 520 (3): 4740–4746. arXiv:2208.02258. doi:10.1093/mnras/stad362.
8. Katie Hunt (18 July 2022). "'Black hole police' discover dormant black hole outside our galaxy for first time". CNN. Retrieved 2022-09-13.