Donald Figer

Donald Figer is an American astronomer. He works at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he is a Professor,^[1] and Director of the Rochester Imaging Detector Laboratory.^[2] He claims that 150 solar masses is the upper limit for stars. By using the Hubble Space Telescope, he observed approximately one thousand stars in a young star cluster, the Arches Cluster, which is near center of the Milky Way. None of the stars surpassed this limit.^[3]

He also identified the Pistol Star as one of the most massive in the Universe.^[4]

References

1. ^ FigerSite
2. ^ http://ridl.cis.rit.edu
3. ^ An Upper Limit to the Masses of Stars. Figer, D. F. 2005, Nature, Vol. 34, No. 7030, 192
4. ^ The Pistol Star. Figer, D.F., Najarro, F., Morris, M.,McLean, I. S., Geballe, T. R., Ghez, A. M., & Langer, N. 1998, ApJ, 506, 384

External links

• NPR interview
• USA Today article
• UPI article
• Rochester Imaging Detector Laboratory
• Dr. Figer's personal webpage

Persondata
Name	Figer, Donald
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Date of birth	1966
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