Post #905342

2025-11-19 16:58 UTC

I&#39;m glad this is finally out after the government shutdown! In this new JWST image, we see shells of dust surrounding the Apep system. As the two Wolf-Rayet stars complete their 190-year orbit, they will get close enough that their winds will collide for about 25 years. These colliding winds produce carbon-rich dust that surrounds the stars in a shell. The shells then get blown outward by the winds. A third star, a massive O-type star, orbits the pair of Wolf-Rayet stars in a wider orbit and destroys some of the top part of the dust shell. All three of these stars appear as a single point of light in the center of the image. The result: At least four nested shells of dust, showing the history of the system like tree rings. https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-first-to-show-4-dust-shells-spiraling-apep-limits-long-orbit/ #astronomy #space #jwst

Replies (5)

@KellyLepo@scicomm.xyz 2025-11-19 16:58

A visualization of the Apep system, showing the nested shells of carbon-rich dust produced by the colliding winds of a Wolf-Rayet binary. https://youtu.be/fITdexBNfkQ?si=mdEixVAcvkUpFI3W

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@cosmos4u@scicomm.xyz 2025-11-20 00:30

@KellyLepo "I'm glad this is finally out after the government shutdown" - you mean the ApJ delayed the publication by 7 weeks so that NASA could put out a press release simultaneously ... on the same day that the 3I presser stole all the thunder anyway?

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@michaelgemar@mstdn.ca 2025-11-20 01:02

@KellyLepo @mike_malaska Amazing!

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@collette@mastodon.social 2025-11-20 03:19

@KellyLepo it's a heavenly trinity!

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@shom@gts.shom.dev 2025-11-20 05:52

@KellyLepo it's so wild that this is the real image and not the artist rendering. And even wilder all the three stars and orbits and interactions is happening in just the small bright center!

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