Video of Star Duo Forms ‘Fingerprint’ in Space #short

MIRI detects the longest infrared wavelengths, which means it can often see cooler objects - including the dust rings - than Webb's other instruments can. MIRI's spectrometer also revealed the composition of the dust, formed mostly from material ejected by a type of star known as a Wolf-Rayet star.

A Wolf-Rayet star is born with at least 25 times more mass than our Sun and is nearing the end of its life, when it will likely explode as a supernova and then collapse into a black hole. Burning hotter than in its youth, a Wolf-Rayet star generates powerful winds that push huge amounts of gas into space. The Wolf-Rayet star in this particular pair may have shed more than half its original mass via this process.

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JPL-Caltech

Music: Stellardrone Twilight