APOD: 2023 February 8 Б Stellar Wind Shaped Nebula RCW 58
Explanation:
Imagine traveling to a star about
100 times as massive as our Sun,
a million times more luminous, and with 30 times the surface temperature.
Such stars exist, and some are known as
Wolf Rayet (WR) stars, named after French astronomers
Charles Wolf
and
Georges Rayet.
The central star in this image is
WR 40
which is located toward the constellation of
Carina.
Stars like
WR 40 live fast and die young
in comparison with the
Sun.
They quickly
exhaust their core hydrogen supply,
move on to fusing
heavier core elements,
and expand while ejecting their outer layers via high
stellar winds.
In this case, the central star
WR 40 ejects the atmosphere at a speed of nearly
100 kilometers per second,
and these outer layers have become the expanding oval-shaped nebula
RCW 58.
Almost Hyperspace:
Random APOD Generator
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
