This is the first time that scientists have captured detailed images of a giant star located outside the Milky Way using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory based in Chile.
In a significant scientific breakthrough, researchers have obtained close-up images of a giant star in the final stages of its life.
This star is named WOH G64, located approximately 160,000 light-years away from Earth in the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.
Image of the star WOH G64 next to an artistic recreation. (Source: ESO/K. Ohnaka).
The somewhat blurry image was captured using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Notably, this is the first time scientists have obtained close-up images of a mature star outside the Milky Way.
The captured images reveal an egg-shaped shell of gas and dust surrounding the star, indicating an impending stellar explosion. This is also the first time scientists have directly observed this process, opening a new chapter in the study of the existence and demise of stars.
Astronomer Keiichi Ohnaka from Andrés Bello University in Chile, the lead author of the study published on November 21 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, stated that this star is in the final stage of its life before it explodes.
According to co-author Jacco van Loon from Keele University in the UK, WOH G64 is estimated to have a mass approximately 25 to 40 times that of the Sun, meaning this star has existed for about 10 to 20 million years.
Over the past decade, the star has significantly faded, while the diameter of WOH G64 continues to swell before the explosion. If this star were placed at the center of the solar system, WOH G64’s diameter would extend to the orbit of Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun.
Typically, giant stars have shorter lifespans than stars with lighter masses. For instance, the Sun is over 4.5 billion years old and is expected to exist for billions more years.
So far, scientists have not been able to accurately determine when WOH G64 will explode. However, they believe this event will occur in the near future on a cosmic timescale.
