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Context:

For the first time, scientists have succeeded in taking a zoomed-in picture of a star in another galaxy. The star, known as WOH G64, seems to be cloaked in an egg-shaped cocoon and is located 160,000 light years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.

Details:

With the help of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), the detailed image of WOH G64 have been revealed.

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with a primary mirror that measures 8.2 meters in diameter.

What is WOH G64? 

The WOH 64 is a giant star that dwells in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf or satellite galaxy that orbits our Milky Way, which also happens to be one of the closest galaxies to us. It was discovered in the 1970s by Bengt Westerlunds, Olander, and Hedin.

 Incidentally, the WOH in its name is the acronym for the names of its three discoverers. The star is believed to be around 1,60,000 light years away from Earth.

The star is classified as a red supergiant owing to its size, which is roughly 2,000 times that of the Sun. 

What do we know about WOH G64?

In recent years, the star has blown off its outer layer, and it is now surrounded by wreaths and arcs of gas and dust.

When big stars like WOH G64 exhaust their nuclear fuel which keeps them burning, their cores collapse.

Some massive stars collapse directly to form a black hole — a region in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, including light and matter.

Others collapse and lead to an explosion called supernova, which produces many elements such as zinc, silver, tin, gold, mercury, lead, and uranium.

Source:

Indian Express