The luminous, hot star called Wolf-Rayet 124 was imaged by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Bright clumps of gas and dust appear like tadpoles swimming toward the star with tails streaming out behind them, blown back by the stellar wind. The surrounding nebula stretches about 10 light-years across.
The luminous, hot star called Wolf-Rayet 124 was imaged by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Bright clumps of gas and dust appear like tadpoles swimming toward the star with tails streaming out behind them, blown back by the stellar wind. The surrounding nebula stretches about 10 light-years across. A massive star on the cusp of death ejected huge volumes of hot gas into space. Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument revealed the structure of the material now surrounding the star. The rare sight of a Wolf-Rayet star - among the most luminous, most massive, and most briefly detectable stars known - was one of the first observations made by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022. Webb shows the star, WR 124, in unprecedented detail with its powerful infrared instruments.
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