The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the rare and fleeting phase of a dying star, the US Space Agency (NASA) announced on Tuesday.
NASA released the image Tuesday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.
The observation was one of the Webb telescope’s first observations after its launch in late 2021.
Its infrared “eyes” observed all the gas and dust blown into space by a huge hot star 15,000 light-years away. A light year is about 9.46 trillion kilometers.
Glowing purple, material ejected from the star once formed its outer layer.
There is beauty in impermanence.
Webb’s stunning image of a super-bright, massive Wolf-Rayet star evokes the ephemeral nature of cherry blossoms. The Wolf-Rayet phase is a volatile phase that only a few stars go through shortly before they explode: https://t.co/ZOAmKgtshI pic.twitter.com/fC0tL24iUe
– NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) March 14, 2023
The Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of the same transit star a few decades ago, though it looked more like a fireball without the fine detail.
The transformation only occurs in some stars and, according to scientists, is usually the last step before they explode and become a supernova.
“We’ve never seen it like this before. It’s really exciting,” said Macarena Garcia Marin, a scientist at the European Space Agency who is part of the project.
This star in the constellation of Sagittarius, officially known as WR 124, is 30 times the mass of our sun and has already spewed out enough material equivalent to 10 suns, according to NASA.
The James Webb, the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space, is a $10 billion project named after a former NASA administrator, who was sent into space on December. European-made missile. It is in orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
With James Webb, astronomers hope to gain more data about the origins of the universe, including the birth of the first galaxies and stars, as well as the formation of planets.
Source: DN
