NASA shared images Wednesday from its James Webb telescope showing 17 circular dust rings from a star duo.
Wolf-Rayet 140, as the duo is known, emanates the rings, which are produced every eight years when the two stars come close together and the stellar winds of both stars collide, according to NASA. The numerous rings around the stars create a pattern similar to a fingerprint.
WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES PHOTOS OF NEPTUNE RINGS WITH NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN CLARITY
“We’re looking at over a century of dust production from this system,” said Ryan Lau, an astronomer with the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. “The image also illustrates just how sensitive this telescope is. Before, we were only able to see two dust rings, using ground-based telescopes. Now we see at least 17 of them.”
The space agency says the dust rings appear thinner and narrower in the images due to the telescope sensitivity, allowing more than two rings to be visible in a picture.
The Wolf-Rayet-type star is “born with at least 25 times more mass than our Sun, that is nearing the end of its life, when it will likely collapse and form a black hole,” according to NASA. The space agency said Wolf-Rayet stars can shed more than half of their original mass while they die out.
NASA has previously revealed images of Neptune and Jupiter from the Webb telescope, providing detailed pictures that are significantly better than previous telescopes.
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The Webb telescope was launched into space in December 2021, and NASA has been releasing images captured by the telescope since July.
