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These cosmic “tree rings” tell a story written by the stars.
These cosmic “tree rings” tell a story written by the stars.
Every 8 years, the two stars in this image are brought together by their orbits — creating colliding streams of gas that, under the right conditions, form a new ring of dust. Webb reveals 15 of the 17 rings seen here for the first time!
This star pair, known together as Wolf-Rayet 140 (WR 140), contains one Wolf-Rayet star. Wolf-Rayet stars are hard to find — only 600 have been discovered to date. That’s because they’re incredibly short-lived, burning hot and bright. They generate powerful winds that push huge amounts of gas into space. Scientists believe that the Wolf-Rayet star in this pair may have already shed half of its original mass in this process!
Some other Wolf-Rayet systems also form dust, but only WR 140 is known to make rings. The ring pattern comes from WR 140’s Wolf-Rayet star, which has a unique elongated orbit.
Webb observed WR 140 with its mid-infrared instrument (MIRI), which is designed to see cooler objects such as these spectacular dust rings. MIRI also shows the best evidence yet that Wolf-Rayet stars can produce carbon-rich dust molecules, and that such molecules can survive even in the hostile environment surrounding these stars.
Bringing it closer to home, this helps us understand how Wolf-Rayet stars potentially supply materials for star and planet formation — and may even have played a role in creating our own solar system: https://www.nasa.gov/.../star-duo-forms-fingerprint-in... Link til bildet: https://skaarpictures.com/iGalerieAstro/?q=item/155-311619623-10159996695515049-4743924016942321195-n 311619623_10159996695515049_4743924016942321195_n.jpg
Every 8 years, the two stars in this image are brought together by their orbits — creating colliding streams of gas that, under the right conditions, form a new ring of dust. Webb reveals 15 of the 17 rings seen here for the first time!
This star pair, known together as Wolf-Rayet 140 (WR 140), contains one Wolf-Rayet star. Wolf-Rayet stars are hard to find — only 600 have been discovered to date. That’s because they’re incredibly short-lived, burning hot and bright. They generate powerful winds that push huge amounts of gas into space. Scientists believe that the Wolf-Rayet star in this pair may have already shed half of its original mass in this process!
Some other Wolf-Rayet systems also form dust, but only WR 140 is known to make rings. The ring pattern comes from WR 140’s Wolf-Rayet star, which has a unique elongated orbit.
Webb observed WR 140 with its mid-infrared instrument (MIRI), which is designed to see cooler objects such as these spectacular dust rings. MIRI also shows the best evidence yet that Wolf-Rayet stars can produce carbon-rich dust molecules, and that such molecules can survive even in the hostile environment surrounding these stars.
Bringing it closer to home, this helps us understand how Wolf-Rayet stars potentially supply materials for star and planet formation — and may even have played a role in creating our own solar system: https://www.nasa.gov/.../star-duo-forms-fingerprint-in... Link til bildet: https://skaarpictures.com/iGalerieAstro/?q=item/155-311619623-10159996695515049-4743924016942321195-n 311619623_10159996695515049_4743924016942321195_n.jpg
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Published on Wednesday, October 19, 2022
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