A team of astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery, capturing the first detailed images of a star beyond our galaxy, the Milky Way. The star, called WOH G64, is located 160,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud and is thought to be one of the largest stars in the galaxy.
The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) has provided a zoomed-in image of the star, revealing an “egg-shaped cocoon” closely surrounding it. This discovery could signal that the star is entering its final stage of life before it becomes a supernova explosion.
According to Dr. Keiichi Ohnaka and Dr. Jacco van Loon, the scientists behind the discovery, the star has undergone a dramatic transition in the past decade or so, blowing off its outer layer and leaving it surrounded by an egg-shaped cocoon of gas and dust.
The elongated shape could be explained by either the star’s rotation or the influence of a yet-undiscovered companion star. However, the scientists believe that this could signal the star entering a final stage of life before it becomes a supernova explosion, which would release an enormous amount of energy equivalent to the Sun shining for 10 billion years.
The discovery provides valuable insights into the life cycle of massive stars and their eventual demise in a supernova explosion. While some stars appear to throw off their outer layers just years or decades before reaching their demise, seeing things unfold in real-time is not guaranteed due to the vast distances involved.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/21/first-close-up-image-of-a-star-outside-milky-way-shows-supergiant-in-cocoon