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.
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.
