OB star

LH 72 is one of the OB associations present in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

OB stars are hot, massive stars of spectral types O or B which form in loosely organized groups called OB associations. They are short lived, and thus don't move very far from where they were formed within their life. During their lifetime, they will emit copious amounts of ultraviolet radiation. This radiation rapidly ionizes the surrounding interstellar gas of the giant molecular cloud, forming an H II region or Strömgren sphere.

In lists of spectra the "spectrum of OB" refers to "unknown, but belonging to an OB association so thus of early type".

See also

• Stellar association

References

• B. Cameron Reed (2003). "Catalog Of Galactic OB Stars". The Astronomical Journal 125 (5): 2531–2533. Bibcode 2003AJ....125.2531R. doi:10.1086/374771. http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1538-3881/125/5/2531/203021.html. 

External links

• [1] — Scientia Astrophysical Organization's star classification page