Cape Canaveral: The Webb Space Telescope has captured a rare and fleeting phase of a star on the brink of death. NASA Photo released Tuesday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. The first observation was made by Webb after launch in late 2021.
Its infrared eyes spotted all the gas and dust thrown into space by a massive, hot star 15,000 light-years away. A light year is approximately 5.8 trillion miles.
There is beauty in transience.
Webb’s stunning image of a super bright, massive Wolf-Rayet star calls up the ephemeral nature of cherry blossoms. The Wolff–Rayet phase is a transitory phase that only some stars go through, just before the explosion: https://t.co/ZOAmKgtshI pic.twitter.com/fC0tL24iUe— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) March 14, 2023
Shimmering in purple like a cherry blossom, the cast-off material once comprised the star’s outer layer. The Hubble Space Telescope took a shot of the same transitional star a few decades ago, but it appeared more like a fireball without the delicate details.
Such a transformation occurs only with some stars and according to scientists, is normally the last stage before exploding, going supernova. “We’ve never seen it like this before. It’s really exciting,” said Macarena García Marín, a scientist at the European Space Agency who is part of the project.
Officially known as WR 124, this star in the constellation Sagittarius is 30 times more massive than our Sun and has already shed enough material for 10 Suns, according to NASA.