Abstract
Abstract. We discuss the signature of a peculiar constellation of very massive stars at a projected distance of 2-3 pc around R136a. We discuss various scenarios for its possible origin, such as independent clusters, triggered star formation, supernovae, and ejections via dynamical interactions. If the latter scenario were the correct one this would have significant implications on the way to probe the conditions in dense stellar cores, and on the evolution of massive clusters in general. 1. Observational findings The 30 Doradus region in the LMC is the largest and most massive HII region in the Local Group at a distance of 53 kpc. Within a diameter of 15 ′ (200 pc) it contains more than 8 × 10 5 M ⊙ of ionized gas (Kennicutt 1984). The inner 60 pc contain the stellar cluster NGC 2070 with about 2400 OB stars, which are