Scientists have taken the first zoomed-in photo of a star outside our Milky Way galaxy. The scan reveals stunning characteristics about WOH G64, a big star that is most likely dying, according to a study published on November 21 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The star, which is approximately 1,500 times the size of our sun, is 160,000 light years away from Earth. It lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a tiny galaxy around the Milky Way.
Until recently, it appeared very impossible to take a clear picture of WOH G64; a telescope larger than 100 meters across would have been needed. Rather, the image was assembled by astronomers using data from four 1.8-meter telescopes. They’re also getting a unique look at what happens to stars as their lives come to an end.
According to Keiichi Ohnaka, an astronomer from the Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago, Chile, “this star, WOH G64, gives us a very real opportunity to investigate what a star is doing, supposedly, just before a supernova explosion.” “Just before” in the context of astronomy. Not today, next week, or one year from now.
If WOH G64 explodes as a supernova at all, it might take 10,000–100,000 years. However, the hints that point to the star’s death are encouraging. Ohnaka speculates that the hazy, egg-shaped cocoon that encircled the star might have been composed of gas and dust particles that stars release as they die.
However, the star’s apparent decrease in the picture, particularly when compared to previous records of its brightness, is the primary clue that it is dying. Ohnaka believes the star dimmed because it began ejecting more and more debris ten years ago. Some stars may experience brief episodes of dimming, but others never recover (SN: 11/29/20).
“We wanted to take another close-up at first,” explains Ohnaka. It didn’t exactly work, though. The star was too dim. “So, we began keeping an eye on it to see when it returned. More intriguingly, though, it might not return. It might simply become progressively weaker.
