Wolf-Rayet 140, JWST image

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James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) image of shells of cosmic dust around Wolf-Rayet 140. Wolf-Rayet stars are very bright massive stars that are in a late stage of stellar evolution. Their lifetime is short and so they are rare. Wolf-Rayet 140 lies 5,600 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. It is part of the binary system SBC9 1232. The concentric shells of dust seen in this image are thought to form when the two stars make their closest approach to each other during their eight-year orbit cycle. Image captured by JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) instrument.

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Size: 3560px × 2456px
Location:
Photo credit: © NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL, Caltech/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, 27, 140, 1232, 2022, astronomical, astronomy, binary, concentric, cosmic, cygnus, dust, evolution, infrared, instrument, interacting, interaction, james, july, jwst, mid-infrared, miri, pattern, rare, regular, sbc9, shell, shells, space, star, stellar, system, telescope, webb, wolf-rayet, wr