NASA’s Webb Space Telescope has captured a rare and fleeting phase of a star on the brink of death.
NASA released the image on Tuesday (14/3) at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.
The observations are among Webb’s first since its launch in late 2021. Its infrared eye observed all the gas and dust ejected into space by a hot, massive star 15,000 light years away. One light year is approximately 5.8 trillion miles (9.28 trillion kilometers).
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Gleaming in purple like cherry blossoms, the waste matter once formed the outer layers of stars. The Hubble Space Telescope photographed the star in the same transition decades ago, but it looks more like a fireball without the fine details.
According to scientists, such a transformation occurs only in a few stars and is usually the last stage before exploding, becoming a supernova.
“We’ve never seen it like that before. It’s very exciting,” said Macarena Garcia Marin, a European Space Agency scientist who was part of the project.
This star in the constellation Sagittarius, officially known as WR 124, is 30 times larger than our sun and has shed enough material for 10 suns, according to NASA. [lt/jm]
