Wolf-Rayet Star
124: Stellar Wind Machine
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From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
Some stars
explode in slow motion. Rare, massive Wolf-Rayet stars are
so tumultuous and hot that they slowly disintegrating right before our
telescopes.
Glowing gas globs
each typically over 30 times more massive than the Earth are being expelled by
violent stellar winds. Wolf-Rayet
star WR 124, visible near the above image center
spanning six light years across,
is thus creating the surrounding nebula known as M1-67.
Details of why
this star has been slowly blowing itself apart over the past 20,000 years
remains a topic of research. WR
124 lies 15,000 light-years away towards the constellation of Sagitta.
The fate of any
given Wolf-Rayet
star likely depends on how massive it is, but many are thought to end
their lives with spectacular explosions such as supernovas or gamma-ray bursts.
