#wr 124

Crisp Death

supermassive stars race through their lifecycles, and only some of them go through a brief Wolf-Rayet phase before going supernova, making Webb’s detailed observations of this rare phase invaluable - such cast-off material later gathers to form planets and new stars, and serves as a platform for molecules to form and clump together, including the building blocks of life

Massive stars race through their lifecycles, and only some of them go through a brief Wolf-Rayet phase before going supernova, making Webb’s detailed observations of this rare phase valuable to astronomers. Wolf-Rayet stars are in the process of casting off their outer layers, resulting in their characteristic halos of gas and dust. The star WR 124 is 30 times the mass of the Sun and has shed 10 Suns’ worth of material – so far. As the ejected gas moves away from the star and cools, cosmic dust forms and glows in the infrared light detectable by Webb.

An image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope shows the star WR 124 and the surrounding nebula in never-before-seen detail. This is a case where a star is nearing the end of its life, which could culminate in a supernova. For this reason, astronomers have been keeping an eye on WR 124 for years with various instruments and it was among Webb's first observation targets in June 2022. The very powerful stellar wind typical of so-called Wolf-Rayet stars caused the loss of this star's outer layers, which formed the nebula that surrounds it. Its details have now been captured in the breathtaking image thanks to Webb's NIRCam and MIRI instruments to better understand the processes taking place before the possible supernova or another type of death.

WR124 is a Wolf–Rayet star in the constellation of Sagitta surrounded by a ring nebula of expelled material known as M1-67. It is one of the fastest runaway stars in the galaxy with a radial velocity around 200 km/s.

Pairing of the star Hen 2-427 with the nebula M1-67 surrounding it. Image captured by the Hubble Telescope. Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA Full image-feature here

Supernova in Hiding