The star WR 124 is located in the Sagittarius galaxy, approximately 15,000 light years from Earth.
Since NASA launched the James Webb to space, we have not ceased to marvel at what it has managed to teach us. NASA’s advanced telescope allows us to observe some of the farthest cosmic elements, thousands of light years from Earth itself. In a recent image released by NASAthe agency has given us the spectacular view of a star about to diein its last state before becoming supernova.
It’s about the star WR 124a fire giant located in the sagittarius constellation, approximately 15,000 light years from Earth. To give you a rough idea of how huge this star is, NASA has explained that WR 124 is about the size of 30 solesbut that will soon change. The most surprising thing about capturing this star is that NASA has immortalized it in his last stretch of life, something that is not usual to see in the astronomical world. The star will soon explode in a massive supernova, and when the gases generated in the process cool, it will take the form of a giant mass of cosmic dust.
There is beauty in transition. 🌸
Webb’s stunning image of a super bright, massive Wolf-Rayet star calls forth the ephemeral nature of cherry blossoms. The Wolf-Rayet phase is a fleeting stage that only a few stars go through, soon before they explode: https://t.co/ZOAmKgtshI pic.twitter.com/fC0tL24iUe
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) March 14, 2023
This cosmic dust is the material with which they have been built many elements of the universe that we know today, and can form new stars or even entire planets. This is how NASA itself explains it:
“Before James Webb, cosmic dust-loving astronomers simply did not have enough detailed information to explore the issues of dust production in environments like WR 124, or whether dust ‘grains’ were large and abundant enough to survive. to supernova and become different stellar bodies. Now those questions can be investigated with real data.”
Thanks to James Webb, astronomers can study these phenomena, which help to understand the processes by which the universe as we know it has been formed. The cosmic dust that survives supernovae is the foundation on which they are built. all kinds of bodies in spaceand has evidently been a major ingredient in the creation of the Earth itself.
The NASA is devoting a large part of its resources and time to outlining the different phases of the Artemis missionwhich will return the human being to the Moon, but to unveil the great and for the moment unattainable mysteries of space, James Webb has the leading role.