#nasty 1

Scientists discovered a new star “Nasty 1

LONDON: Sometimes space may seem scary, even violent. This is what has driven scientists to call a new star discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope as “Nasty 1.” This is because the start is quite different from our own star, the Sun. Nasty 1, unlike most stars, has its core exposed because of the rapid breakdown of its outer layers, giving scientists a view of the awe-inspiring core. While Nasty…

Hubble Observes One-of-a-Kind Star Nicknamed ‘Nasty’

By Ray Villard

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered surprising new clues about a hefty, rapidly aging star whose behavior has never been seen before in our Milky Way galaxy. In fact, the star is so weird that astronomers have nicknamed it “Nasty 1,” a play on its catalog name of NaSt1. The star may represent a brief transitory stage in the evolution of extremely massive stars.

First discovered several decades ago, Nasty 1 was identified as a Wolf-Rayet star, a rapidly evolving star that is much more massive than our sun. The star loses its hydrogen-filled outer layers quickly, exposing its super-hot and extremely bright helium-burning core.