First results from the faint object camera - High-resolution observations of the central object R136 in the 30 Doradus nebula

R 136 is the luminous central object of the giant H II region 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We report on the first high- resolution observations of RI 36 with the Faint Object Camera on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The physical nature of the brightest component R136a has been a matter of some controversy over the last few years. The UV images obtained show that R136a is a very compact star cluster consisting of more than eight stars within 0.7" diameter. From these high-resolution images a mass upper limit can be derived for the most luminous stars observed in R136.