LightNews LightNews
banner
thiccyricky9.bsky.social
@thiccyricky9.bsky.social
33 followers 12 following 1 posts
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted
timmytwoshirts.bsky.social
🎨Aware Wolf
January 11, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Reposted
jwstfeed.bsky.social
High resolution image of a heavy star.
🔭 🧪
The luminous, hot star Wolf-Rayet 124 (WR 124) is prominent at the centre of the James Webb Space Telescope’s composite image combining near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light. The star displays the characteristic diffraction spikes of Webb’s Near-infrared Camera (NIRCam), caused by the physical structure of the telescope itself. NIRCam effectively balances the brightness of the star with the fainter gas and dust surrounding it, while Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals the nebula’s structure. Background stars and galaxies populate the field of view and peek through the nebula of gas and dust that has been ejected from the ageing massive star. A history of the star’s past episodes of mass loss can be read in the nebula’s structure. Rather than smooth shells, the nebula is formed from random, asymmetric ejections. Bright clumps of gas and dust appear like tadpoles swimming toward the star, their tails streaming out behind them, blown back by the stellar wind.
January 10, 2025 at 5:37 PM