Pismis 24-1

A wider field view of Pismis 24-1, also known as HD 319718, is the brightest star of the open cluster Pismis 24 within the nebula NGC 6357 about 6,500 light-years away. It was once thought to be the most massive star known, but is composed of at least three individual objects, each still among the most luminous and most massive stars known.

The two components of Pismis 24-1NE cannot be detected separately, but analysis of their eclipses shows that they are almost identical, with temperatures around 42,000 K. The pair combined is nearly 800,000 times as luminous as the sun,

The Hubble F550 filter was mapped to Orange and the F850 filter was mapped to Spring Green to produce the separation between these immensely luminous stars (yellow green) and gas and dust (blue green)

Image produced from raw data downloaded from MAST: the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes

Original image by ESA/Hubble, alignment, integration and colour mapping by Arc Fortnight.