Shortly after its commissioning, the James Webb Space Telescope imaged a massive star that is going through its final phase before the final supernova. The so-called Wolf-Rayet star, named WR 124, can be seen in the image amid gas and dust, the material glowing in infrared light. This material is of particular interest to astronomers because it could help clarify the question of why there is more dust in the universe than can be explained with previous theories. At the same time, stars are comparatively rare at this stage in their evolution, which makes observation particularly valuable.
Important source of cosmic dust
How the European Space Agency explained, massive stars pass through the various stages of evolution at comparatively high speeds. Not all eject large amounts of material into their surroundings before they end, exposing their core in the process. Those that do are called Wolf-Rayet stars, after two French astronomers. The matter is moving away from the star, cooling as it does so and glowing in the infrared spectrum visible to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). WR 124 is a particularly well-known example, it has already been photographed with the Hubble Space Telescope. The star has about 30 solar masses and has already ejected 10 solar masses of material.
It is this dust around WR 124 that not only looks particularly beautiful on the image, but is also of great interest for research. As ESA recalls, such dust is essential for the functioning of the universe. It is home to forming stars, forms a central foundation of forming planets and serves as the starting material for the formation of molecules – including the building blocks of life. But there is still a big mystery: So far, more dust has been found in the universe than can be explained with the existing theories. Thanks to the new observation, one can now determine whether stars like WR 124 make a significant contribution to the dust content of the cosmos.
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The James Webb Space Telescope is operated by the space agencies NASA, ESA and CSA and was launched on December 25, 2021. After a complex procedure of self-unfolding, it arrived at the L2 Lagrange point a month later. Here it looks away from the sun, earth and moon into space so that their thermal radiation does not disturb the infrared telescope. A huge protective screen blocks them. Since it started scientific work, the quality of the data has not only impressed the scientific community.
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