Zeta Oph:
Runaway Star
From
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
Like
a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta
Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning
infrared portrait.
In
the false-color view, bluish Zeta Oph, a star about 20 times more massive than
the Sun, lies near the center of the frame, moving toward the left at 24
kilometers per second.
Its
strong stellar wind precedes it, compressing and heating the dusty interstellar material and
shaping the curved shock front. Around it are clouds of relatively
undisturbed material.
What
set this star in motion?
Zeta
Oph was likely once a member of a binary star system, its
companion star was more massive and hence shorter
lived.
When
the companion exploded
as a supernova catastrophically losing mass, Zeta Oph was flung out of
the system. About 460 light-years away, Zeta Oph is 65,000
times more luminous than the Sun and would be one of the brighter stars in the
sky if it weren't surrounded by obscuring dust.
The
image spans about 1.5 degrees or 12 light-years at
the estimated distance of Zeta Ophiuchi.
