Astronomers have believed for a long time that massive stars forming in our modern-day universe have a limit of 150 solar masses. Larger stars would generate so much light that the sheer pressure of their own radiation would blow off enormous amounts of its mass, quickly, leaving it a smaller mass of 100 to 150 solar masses. Astronomers now have observational evidence to support their theories.

Don Figer of the Space Telescope Science Institute studied the most luminous and massive stars found in the Arches Cluster, near our galactic center. The star masses have a sharp cutoff at 130 solar masses. The 2-million-year-old cluster has thousands of stars. Some stars shine at millions of times the intensity of our sun. Figer’s results are the same as 9 other star cluster studies done by Sally Oey and her team at the University of Michigan.

In the early universe, stars formed from clouds of pure hydrogen and helium. Models show that stars formed in the absence of heavier elements can attain masses as high as 500 suns. They had short, furious lives, and exploded billions of years ago.