James Webb Space Telescope Displays Death of a Star ✨

James Webb Captures A Star's Death!

This stellar death that James Webb has visualized is not actually the death of an ordinary star. It belongs to the Wolf-Rayet star, which is a massive star that is in an advanced stage of stellar evolution and has lost a lot of mass.

By combining Webb's powerful infrared instruments with the near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light from his near-infrared camera and mid-infrared instrument, he was able to photograph the star called WR 124.

These extremely rare stars are estimated to number around 220 in our own galaxy, but astronomers predict that there may be 1,000 to 2,000 such stars, the majority of which are obscured by dust.

Typically with masses greater than 25 times the Sun, they have short lifetimes and are therefore extremely rare. are celestial bodies.

The average temperature of a Wolf-Rayet star is thought to be more than 25,000 Kelvin and could be a million times more luminous than the Sun.

The powerful winds emitted by these stars are thought to be driven by the intense radiation pressure. These winds eject material about 10 solar masses per million years at speeds up to 3,000 km/s, creating characteristic broad emission lines in the spectra of these stars.

Wolf-Rayet stars are thought to have spectacularly terminated their lives as either a Type Ib or Type Ic supernova explosion. At the same time, these stars are important sources of gas and dust in the universe after supernova explosions.

While this star is located in the constellation Sagitta (Arrowhead), it is approximately 15,000 light-years away from Earth.

Thanks to James Webb's instruments in the near-infrared and infrared region, we can examine the star formation regions in more detail, detect star formations that we could not see before, and have more information about the workings of the universe, which Hubble could not see in the optical region. Finally, you can see the full image at the top.

resources: https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/w/wolf-rayet+star

https: //www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-telescope-captures-rarely-seen-prelude-to-supernova