Every star ages, but astronomers are rarely able to observe it in real time. They are now at the forefront of the aging of an extremely chaotic star and see it heading for an extremely violent death. Located in the nearby Triangle Galaxy (also known as Messier 33), the star is in the middle of a transition to a class of highly unstable stars called stars. Wolf Raye. The new observations show that the star is starting to emit a new signal that was not seen when it was first detected in 2018.

A new signal detected in the peaks and valleys of the spectrum the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation it emits, and the star shows that it is churning out either carbon or iron within itself through nuclear fusion. The new signal also indicates the existence of a massive star 25 times its mass. mass of the sunapproached its ultimate destiny – to explode magnificently super new.

“It’s really interesting that we can see a real change in the spectrum of the object in just four years,” Olivia Gaunt, a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts who participated in the new study, said Tuesday (June 6th). . ), is sharing the findings online and at the 242nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “We believe this may be the first real-time observation of an evolving Wolf-Rayet star.”

Gaunt’s team calls the star BELLS 1, short for “broadband light source, the type of broadband radiation emitted by Wolf-Rayet stars.”

BELLS 1 was probably originally a hot, massive star and quickly lost its hydrogen reservoir, fusing lighter elements with heavier elements. nuclear fusion. The rich spectrum discovered by Gaunt’s team is stellar material about 10 solar masses from BELLS 1, which explodes at 2.2–5.4 million miles per hour (3.5–8.7 million km/h) every million years. produced by the raging winds that hurl it. The discarded stellar material is pumped back into the nearby universe, where it triggers the formation of next-generation stars and enriches them with recycled elements.

When the team first observed BELLS 1 in 2018, Keck observatoryLocated at the top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, the star had three emission lines. But during follow-up observations in 2022, BELLS 1 showed a new emission line, implying it went one step further in its short and energetic evolution. Illuminated by the light of millions of suns, BELLS 1 is nearing the end of its 10-million-year life cycle. When a star runs out of fuel, it will explode in what astronomers call a Type I supernova.

The new observations are exciting, but not entirely surprising. “We know they exist in the short term, so we expect a quick turnaround,” Gaunt said at a press conference on Tuesday. Said.

Wolf-Rayet stars like BELLS 1, according to NASA, live fast and die hardtherefore observing their evolution is a rare and valuable opportunity for astronomers. It is known that the Milky Way is in the galaxy. There are only 200 such stars. Astronomers suspect there may be 1,000 or 2,000 more, but they are obscured by thick dust covers. Source