The orbits of two stars that only come together about once every eight years were imaged for the first time by the James Webb Space Telescope NASA
Located just over 5 thousand light years from Earth, the duo is collectively known as Wolf-Rayet 140 and has at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from the pairwhich could be captured thanks to the sensitivity of the James Webb telescope, reported NSF NOIRLab astronomer Ryan Lau.
The researcher said that the Wolf-Rayet they are O-type stars nearing the end of their lives. At birth they have at least 25 times more mass than our Sun. and once its life is over it will probably collapse and form a black hole.
These generate winds that push huge amounts of gas into space, including hydrogen and other elements such as carbon. In the case of the Wolf-Rayet 140 duo, when the elements cool and meet the winds from both stars, they compress, forming the ring dust.
Its unique pattern forms because the orbit of the Wolf-Rayet star in WR 140 is elongated, not circular. Only when the two approach each other, roughly the same distance between Earth and the Sun, and their winds collide, is the gas under enough pressure to form dust. When the orbits are circular, Wolf-Rayet binaries can continuously produce dust.
Lhe new observations provide the best evidence yet that Wolf-Rayet stars produce carbon-rich dust molecules. Furthermore, the preservation of dust layers indicates that this dust can survive in the harsh environment between stars, providing material for future stars and planets.
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However, although astronomers estimate that there should be at least a few thousand Wolf-Rayet stars in our galaxy, only about 600 have been found to date.
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