🌌 SpacePicture of a Day: Dust Shells around WR 140 from Webb 🪐
What are those strange rings? Rich in dust, the rings are likely 3D shells -- but how they were created remains a topic of research. Where they were created is well known: in a binary star system that lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) -- a system dominated by the Wolf-Rayet star WR 140. Wolf-Rayet stars are massive, bright, and known for their tumultuous winds. They are also known for creating and dispersing heavy elements such as carbon which is a building block of interstellar dust. The other star in the binary is also bright and massive -- but not as active. The two great stars joust in an oblong orbit as they approach each other about every eight years. When at closest approach, the X-ray emission from the system increases, as, apparently, does the dust expelled into space -- creating another shell. The featured infrared image by the new Webb Space Telescope resolves greater details and more dust shells than ever before.
HD image: LINK 🛸
Copyright: No copyright 🔭
Project Website: LINK 🚀
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| Name | Craft |
|---|---|
| Kjell Lindgren | ISS |
| Bob Hines | ISS |
| Samantha Cristoforetti | ISS |
| Jessica Watkins | ISS |
| Cai Xuzhe | Tiangong |
| Chen Dong | Tiangong |
| Liu Yang | Tiangong |
| Sergey Prokopyev | ISS |
| Dmitry Petelin | ISS |
| Frank Rubio | ISS |
| Nicole Mann | ISS |
| Josh Cassada | ISS |
| Koichi Wakata | ISS |
| Anna Kikina | ISS |
