The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured images of two stars in the Wolf-Rayet 140 system, actively producing carbon-rich dust. This dust, ejected during collisions of the stars' winds, may eventually form new stars and planets. The telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) revealed 17 shells of dust expanding at speeds exceeding 1,600 miles per second. Scientists are using these observations to learn how carbon spreads throughout the universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope captured a photo of two stars actively producing carbon-rich dust , which may one day fuel the formation of new stars and planets.
“As the massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another on their elongated orbits, their winds collide and produce carbon-rich dust,” the Webb Space Telescope team. “For a few months every eight years, the stars form a new shell of dust that expands outward — and may eventually go on to become part of stars that form elsewhere in our galaxy.”
The new photo and associated findings are helping scientists learn more about how carbon forms and is spread throughout the Universe. The oldest shells visible in the MIRI image are more than 130 years old. Of course, in reality, they are much older and long since dissipated since the objects are 5,000 light-years away. Researchers believe the stars will generate “tens of thousands of dust shells over hundreds of thousands of years.”
JWST James Webb Space Telescope Wolf-Rayet 140 Carbon-Rich Dust Star Formation
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