CW LEONIDAS, OUTER SPACE - 28 October 2021 - A hypnotizing vortex? A peek into a witch's cauldron? A giant space-spiderweb? In reality, it's a look at
CW LEONIDAS, OUTER SPACE - 28 October 2021 - A hypnotizing vortex? A peek into a witch's cauldron? A giant space-spiderweb? In reality, it's a look at the red giant star CW Leonis as photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope — just in time for celebrating Halloween with creepy celestial sights. The orange-red "cobwebs" are dusty clouds of sooty carbon engulfing the dying star. They were created from the outer layers of CW Leonis being thrown out into the inky black void. The carbon, cooked up through nuclear fusion in the star's interior, gives it a carbon-rich atmosphere. Blasting the carbon back into space provides raw material for the formation of future stars and planets. All known life on Earth is built around the carbon atom. Complex biological molecules consist of carbon atoms bonded with other common elements in the universe. At a distance of 300 light-years from Earth, CW Leonis is the closest carbon star. This gives astronomers the chance to understand the interplay between the star and its surrounding, turbulent envelope. The complex inner structure of shells and arcs may be shaped by the star’s magnetic field. Detailed Hubble observations of CW Leonis taken over the last two decades also show the expansion of threads of ejected material around the star. The bright beams of light radiating outwards from CW Leonis are one of the star's most intriguing features. They've changed in brightness within a 15 year period — an incredibly short timespan in astronomical terms. Astronomers speculate that gaps in the dust shrouding CW Leonis may allow beams of starlight to pierce through and illuminate dust, like searchlight beacons through a cloudy sky. However the exact cause of the dramatic changes in their brightness is as yet unexplained. A star shines when the outward radiative pressure from the fusion furnace at the core balances against the crush of gravity. When the star runs out of hydrogen fuel, the persistent pull of gravity causes the star to st
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Keywords: 2020s, 2021, amazing, astronomy, astrophysics, cosmos, cw, dwarf, dying, galaxies, hst, hubble, leonis, nasa, outer, red, science, space, star, stars, telescope, universe
