Quote:
The small open star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357 in Sagittarius, about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. Some of the stars in this cluster are extremely massive and emit intense ultraviolet radiation.
The brightest object in the picture is designated Pismis 24-1. It was once thought to weigh as much as 200 to 300 solar masses. This would not only have made it by far the most massive known star in the galaxy, but would have put it considerably above the currently believed upper mass limit of about 150 solar masses for individual stars.
However, Hubble Space Telescope high-resolution images of the star show that it is really two stars orbiting one another. They are estimated to each be 100 solar masses.
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http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=4795
Lots of scientists just breathed a sigh of relief. This was a huge puzzle to scientists for some time now, and it looks like they were right.
Oh, and the image at the bottom of the page is fantastic.
