Reporting from the NASA page, Wednesday (15/3/2023), this star is 15,000 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Webb shows star WR 124 in unprecedented detail with its advanced infrared instruments.
Massive stars race through their life cycles, and only some of them go through a brief Wolf-Rayet phase before going supernova. So Webb’s detailed observations of this rare phase are invaluable to astronomers.
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Wolf-Rayet stars are in the process of shedding their outer layers, producing a characteristic halo of gas and dust. Star WR 124 is 30 times the mass of the Sun and has ejected 10 Suns of matter – so far.
As the ejected gas moves away from the star and cools, cosmic dust forms and glows in infrared light that Webb can detect. The origin of cosmic dust that can survive supernova explosions and contribute to the overall “dust budget” of the universe is of great interest to astronomers for many reasons.
Dust is an integral part of how the universe works to protect stars that are forming. They came together to help form the planets, and are where molecules formed and clumped together, including the building blocks of life on Earth.
