The James Webb Space Telescope captured an extremely rare image, a harbinger of a supernova. This is Wolf-Rayet 124, a now-dying star that was 30 times more massive than our Sun when it was born several thousand years ago and is about to (astronomically speaking) collapse in a stellar explosion.

James Webb, like Hubble, will provide us with some spectacular images of deep space. In the one that concerns us, we see clouds of dust, intense plumes of color to match the last crack of a dying star. In the center of this floral structure is a blue and white star. As it is about to collapse into a black hole, it burns hotter and creates strong winds of gas before disappearing forever.

Supernova Prelude

Scientists released the new image during the conference South by southwest which takes place this week in Austin, Texas. The event included a panel of experts from NASA and the European Space Agency to discuss the latest scientific discoveries of James Webb, the most advanced space telescope in history, which has impressive “eyes” thanks to its 18 hexagons that make up the 6.5 primary mirror. meters, almost three times that of Hubble.

“This is Carl Sagan’s concept of stardust, the fact that the iron in our blood and the calcium in our bones were literally forged inside a star that exploded billions of years ago.NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn said at the conference. “That’s what we see in this new image: that dust spreads through space and eventually forms planets. And that’s how we got here.”.

Webb was built precisely to capture the earliest periods of deep space. Its primary mirror is not only enormous in size, but can detect invisible light at infrared wavelengths. The vast amount of dust and gas in space is said to obscure the view of extremely distant and naturally faint sources of light, but infrared waves can penetrate these clouds.

The star pictured, Wolf-Rayet 124, is located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. It is enveloped in a cocoon of gas and dust, layers broken off from the star mixed with elements found inside the star, such as carbon. According to researchers, material equivalent to 10 suns has been launched so far.

And it will continue to do so until it goes supernova. His death will not be in vain and will end up giving life. New stellar objects in the “stardust” process, as defined by the charismatic astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan.