On being 30- Hot blue stars 50 times more massive than the sun

I have decided being 30 is the new 21. It's all in the mind- if you think it's fun, then it is.

Actually, turning 30 wasn’t anywhere near as bad as its made out to be. It has a lousy reputation, but actually is just a number and nothing to be scared of.

Luckily, as planned, I had my nearest and dearest with me to acknowledge its ‘ just a number-ness’ with champagne and giggles which was just what is required of a birthday, especially one as (un)important as a 30th.



By the way, the photo comes from the NASA website, with this amazing explanation. Every day is a school day folks...

In the center of 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster of the largest, hottest, most massive stars known. The center of this cluster, known as R136, is boxed in the upper right portion of the above picture. The gas and dust filling the rest of the picture is predominantly ionized hydrogen from the emission nebula 30 Doradus. R136 is composed of thousands of hot blue stars, some about 50 times more massive than our Sun. 30 Doradus and R136 lie in the LMC - a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Although the ages of stars in R136 cause it to be best described as an open cluster, R136's density will likely make it a low mass globular cluster in a few billion years.