The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey

TL;DR

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey provides extensive spectroscopic data on over 800 massive stars in 30 Doradus, revealing insights into stellar atmospheres, winds, evolution, and potential IMF variations.

Contribution

This survey offers the first large-scale, multi-epoch spectroscopic dataset for massive stars in 30 Doradus, enabling new analyses of stellar properties and evolution.

Findings

Identification of O-type runaways.

Measurement of mass-loss rates for massive stars.

Evidence suggesting a top-heavy initial mass function in 30 Doradus.

Abstract

We present a number of notable results from the VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey (VFTS), an ESO Large Program during which we obtained multi-epoch medium-resolution optical spectroscopy of a very large sample of over 800 massive stars in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This unprecedented data-set has enabled us to address some key questions regarding atmospheres and winds, as well as the evolution of (very) massive stars. Here we focus on O-type runaways, the width of the main sequence, and the mass-loss rates for (very) massive stars. We also provide indications for the presence of a top-heavy initial mass function (IMF) in 30 Dor.