Tech

Here's what a star on the verge of exploding looks like up close

Here's what a star on the verge of exploding looks like up close

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured another rare sight, this time 15,000 light-years from Earth.

The space observatory captured an image of a Wolf-Rayet star called WR 124 in the constellation Sagittarius. Wolf-Rayet stars are some of the brightest and most massive stars in the universe.

Some stars briefly become a Wolf-Rayet before exploding in a supernova, so it's rare for astronomers to spot them.

Big, bright stars burn through their fuel, like hydrogen, for a few hundred thousand years, which is a short time for astronomers. Stars shed their outer layers in rings of gas and dust. Then, they explode.

The Webb Telescope caught a glimpse of WR 124 during some of its first science observations in June 2022. The new image, released by NASA on Tuesday at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, reveals details in infrared light, which it is invisible to the human eye. The star, surrounded by a halo of glowing gas and dust, shines in the center of the image.