HD 38282

HD 38282 (R144, BAT99-118, Brey 89) is a massive spectroscopic binary star in the Tarantula Nebula (Large Magellanic Cloud), consisting of two hydrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet stars.

R144 is located near the R136 cluster at the center of NGC 2070 and may have been ejected from it after an encounter with another massive binary. It shares a common X-ray cavity with the R146 (HD 269926) and R147 (HD 38344) Wolf-Rayet star systems.

Both components of R144 are detected in the spectrum and both are WNh stars, very hot stars with strong emission lines due to their strong stellar winds. The orbit has not been determined, but is likely to be between two and six months long, possibly more if it is eccentric. The primary, slightly hotter, star is observed to be the less massive of the two.

Each star is amongst the most luminous known, but the exact parameters of each has not been determined. Their combined luminosity is around to. The masses have not yet been calculated accurately from the orbital parameters, but the stars have been modelled to initially have been around and. Depending on their exact age, this has now decreased to between and  for the primary and  and  for the secondary.