Live Fast Die Young
July 29th 2010 05:57
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Star WR22 image ESO La Silla Observatory Chile South America.
Super massive stars somewhat like their rock counterparts tend to live fast and die young. Some of these stellar giants tend to shine like a very bright light house on the sea coast. These groups of stars have such intense radiation passing through their thick atmospheres late in their lives that they shed material into space many millions of times faster than relatively sedate stars such as the Sun.
These rare, very hot and massive objects are known as Wolf-Rayet stars, after the two French astronomers who first identified them in the mid-nineteenth century. Named WR 22 is one of the most massive ones yet measured.
It appears at the centre of image above. These images were created from images taken through red, green and blue filters with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile South America.
WR 22 is a member of a binary star system and has been measured to have a mass at least 70 times that of the Sun.
WR 22 can be seen in the southern constellation of Carina, the keel of Jason's ship Argo in Greek mythology.
Although the star lies at a distance of over 5000 light-years from the Earth it is so bright that it can just be faintly seen with the naked eye under good conditions.
WR 22 is one of many brilliant stars associated with the beautiful Carina Nebula (also known as NGC 3372) and the outer part of this huge region of star formation in the southern Milky
The subtle colours in this rich imagery are a result of the interactions between the intense ultraviolet radiation coming from hot massive stars, including WR 22, and interaction by the vast gas clouds, mostly hydrogen, from which they originally formed.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
The light we are seeing left the star some 5000 years ago. In effect we are seeing the past.
The star may have undergone changes since then but it will take another 5000 years to find out.
Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief