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A first outside the Milky Way: Stunning image of the close and final moments of a supergiant star!

byadmin
November 22, 2024

Scientists from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have achieved a historic success in space exploration. For the first time, a close-up image of a star outside the Milky Way has been recorded.

Astronomers have captured the first close-up image of a star beyond the Milky Way, providing groundbreaking insights into the life cycle of giant stars in deep space. This striking image is of a red supergiant star called WOH G64, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 160,000 light-years from Earth.
Scientists obtained this image using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and the GRAVITY instrument in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The observations show that a dusty cocoon surrounding the star is formed by the materials that were emitted before the supernova explosion.
Dr. Keiichi Ohnaka, the lead author of the study, stated that this observation was in the final stages of the star’s life and said, “We detected a dust cocoon that resembles an egg. This shows that the giant star was emitting a large amount of material before the supernova explosion.” When the team examined data from the last 10 years, they detected a significant decrease in the star’s brightness.
WOH G64 is about two thousand times the size of the Sun and is in the giant star class.
Jacco van Loon from Keele University stated that the explosion process of such giant stars could be very close, commenting, “This star may be one step closer to exploding.”
Gerd Weigelt from the Max Planck Institute in Germany emphasized that this discovery offers a rare opportunity to understand the life cycle of giant stars. Researchers stated that by examining the details of the cocoon and dust ring around the star, they can better understand future supernova explosions. These important findings were published in the November 21, 2024 issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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