NASA discovers a ‘fingerprint’ in space

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured an unusual photo in the night sky.

Just over 5,000 light-years from Earth, researchers have seen at least 17 rings of dust around a pair of stars. The duo is known as Wolf-Rayet 140, which is an « O-type star » born with at least 25 times the mass of Earth’s Sun.

A Wolf-Rayet star, according to a NASA press release citing the discovery, is near the end of its life, when researchers expect it to collapse and form a black hole.

The images captured by the telescope are extraordinary due to the specific conditions necessary for the formation of dust in space.

« Curning gas into dust is a bit like turning flour into bread, » says a NASA press release.

Wolf-Rayet stars lose mass, peeling away layers until complex elements are exposed. Some of these include carbon, which scientists call a « heavy » element and when mixed with cool space winds and compression from the meeting of two stars, NASA says, it’s like » two hands kneading dough ».

This creates dust that forms as the stars continue to spin. The orbits of the stars bring them together once every eight years, the rings captured in the photo are like rings on a tree trunk marking the passage of time.

This is extremely important data because NASA can now use it as evidence that Wolf-Rayet stars produce « carbon-rich dust molecules ».

When the Webb Telescope detected about 17 rings of dust, it showed researchers that the area around the stars was free of other material, indicating why the dust was so visible.

« The preservation of dust shells indicates that this dust can survive in the harsh environment between stars, continuing to provide material for future stars and planets, » the press release reads.

Astronomers are amazed to see such a view through photos because only 600 Wolf-Rayet stars have been discovered so far, with estimates of at least a few thousand in our galaxy.

« Even though Wolf-Rayet stars are rare in our galaxy because they are short-lived, it is possible that they produced a lot of dust throughout the galaxy’s history before exploding and /or form black holes, » said Patrick Morris, an astrophysicist at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif., and co-author of the new study.

He added: « I think with NASA’s new space telescope, we’re going to learn a lot more about how these stars shape the material between stars and trigger the formation of new stars in galaxies. »