17 rings drawn by pairs of giant stars. Photographed by the James Webb Space Telescope | sorae space portal site

That’s about 5,300 light-years in the direction of Cygnus“Wolf-Rayet 140” (Wolf-Rayet 140, hereinafter “WR 140”)It is surrounded by a brightly lit WR 140 in the center of the imagemany episodesIt was clearly captured. WR 140 lives up to its name“Wolf Wright Star”Known as one of the

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Wolf-Rayet stars are massive stars.O . starIt is an advanced form of short life, approaching the end of its life span, which is said to be less than 10 million years. In Wolf-Rayet stars, due to the loss of a large amount of hydrogen in the stellar winds emitted from the outer layer,The hot inner layer is exposedIt is believed that although it is estimated that there must be thousands of Wolf-Rayet stars in the Milky Way, they do exist.600 degreesIt was just found.

this pictureJames Webb Space TelescopeFrom“Middle Infrared Device (MIRI)”Created from images obtained with the human eye cannot see infrared light, this image can beColored in red, green and blueit has been（※）。

* … F2100W: Red, F1500W: Green, F770W: Blue

WR 140 is actually a star that evolved into a Wolf-Rayet star (about 10 times the mass of the Sun) orbiting another O-type star (about 30 times the mass of the Sun) for a period of 7.93 years.LianxingI’ve been with. The surface temperature of an O-type star is about 35,000 °C, but the surface temperature of the WR 140 Wolf-Rayet star isAbout 60,000°C(more than 10 times the sun).In the process of evolution into a Wolf-Rayet star, this starThe ability to secrete a substance equal to more than half of its massIt seems there

[▲ مقارنة أحجام النجوم من النوع O (على اليمين) ونجوم Wolf-Rayet (على اليسار) والشمس (أعلى اليسار) التي تشكل WR 140 (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech)]

According to NASA, the concentric rings surrounding WR 140 aresoilO stars and Wolf-Rayet starsStellar winds collideIt is believed to have formed by gas compression and dust generation. However, WR 140’s star Wolf-Rayet orbits in an elongated elliptical orbit, so dust is produced only when the two stars are close to each other. Therefore, rings of dust are like tree rings,Formed approximately every 8 yearswill be

WR 140 images captured by the Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI include:17 episodes in totalis in the picture. Astronomer at the National Science Foundation (NSF) National Institute of Optical and Infrared Astronomy (NOIRLab) and lead author of a new research paper on WR 140Ryan Lau“We are looking forward to more than a century of dust formation in this binary star,” he says. I did in the pastObservations using ground-based telescopes showed only two rings.So, once again, you can see the high performance of the Webb Space Telescope.

Wolf-Rayet stars, which have different properties than the Sun,Formation of stars and planetsIt may play an important role in accreting matter such as gas and dust that drifts away from stars near Wolf-Rayet into surrounding regions, and may eventually become dense enough to support the formation of new stars. The activity of short-lived Wolf-Rayet stars could lead to the birth of the next generation of stars.

from Caltech who participated in the research team led by LaoPatrick Morris“Although short-lived Wolf-Rayet stars are rare in the Milky Way, they may have generated large amounts of dust prior to explosions and black hole formation throughout galactic history.” Together with our new space telescope, we will learn what matter is like and how it gave rise to stars in our galaxies.”

The first image was released on October 12, 2022 by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates the Webb Space Telescope.

Connection:A clear image of Neptune’s rings from the James Webb Space Telescope

source

• Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JPL-Caltech
• NASA – Star Duo forms ‘Fingerprint’ in space, NASA finds on the web
• STSCI – Webb reveals dust shells surrounding a bright binary star system
• esa / web – Webb finds Star Duo Forms “fingerprint” in space
• Lau et al. – Dust shells interfering around the Wolf-Rayet WR 140 duo observed with JWST

Text / Matsumura Takehiro