James Weber telescope has been launched for more than eight months. It has discovered many amazing wonders in the depths of the universe and has not failed the title of "the strongest eye of mankind" .
Recently, it has made new discoveries in the direction of Cygnus , which is 45,600 light years away from the Earth.
This is a strange photo. In the dark space, there is a mysterious and spectacular concentric ring, which has an incredible similarity to human fingerprints. It is centered on a dazzling star and spreads more than 20 slightly rectangular concentric arcs around it. The intervals of each group follow certain rules.
fingerprint is a unique biometric feature of humans. Is this fingerprint in space derived from the hands of aliens with high intelligence? On October 12, several astronomers published an article in the international scientific journal " Nature ", trying to explain this wonder in a scientific way.
This position is a pair of stars in Cygnus called WR140. It is an binary star system , composed of two stars, rotating around a common center of mass. is only far from the earth, so it is difficult for us to distinguish . The interaction between the two stars allows them to periodically erupt dust and spread into space. The orbit of
WR140 is narrow and long elliptical, and it will approach each other every eight years. At this time, the amount of dust ejected is the largest. As the distance between the two stars becomes farther and farther, the dust will also decrease significantly. Scientists speculate that this is the source of dust. It is not uncommon for stars to eject dust in the universe. Why haven't seen such fingerprints before?
The surface of the star is not as calm as we see. It often ejects matter from the kernel and throws it outward. At this time, the stars usually produce strong stellar winds, They are charged higher particles flowing from the atmosphere , and our solar wind is like this.
But between WR140, stellar wind is more like hurricane on Earth. When two stars approach, the stellar winds of each other will merge with each other. In a merger with periods, the dust they throw will also regularly increase or decrease , thus forming an arc like a fingerprint. The motion trajectory of
WR140 is regular, so it can drift outward at the same initial speed every time, and the dust will advance further away every time, so these concentric arcs can maintain an equal distance for each circle.
However, the researchers found that among the two circles of dust close to the inside, the outer ring seemed to advance faster. Researchers believe this may be the effect of light pressure. Both stars WR140 are very bright, with millions of times brightness of the sun, while light radiation will generate light pressure, which will have continuous thrust on matter, thus making the dust advance faster.
These dust arcs can only emit light in the infrared band and cannot be observed in the visible band. The Weber Telescope happens to be equipped with a very precise "MIRI" mid-infrared detector. In order to ensure the sensitivity of the detector, the Weber Telescope must maintain a low temperature of -260℃ all year round.
Keck Observatory, located in Mount Monakea, Hawaii, USA, has also observed this area, but it only saw two arcs. By comparison, it is enough to show the almost terrifying ability of Weber's telescope.
This pair of stars consists of a massive O-shaped companion star and an extremely rare Wolf-Raye star . WR is the abbreviation of Wolf-Rayet. This type of star is extremely rare. Among the Milky Way , which has hundreds of billions of stars, scientists have only discovered 150.
Wolf-Laye star is extremely hot, similar to O-type and B-type stars, and is very active itself. Its extremely hot temperature and extremely high brightness make it located in the upper left corner of the extreme Herotu . Wolf-Laye Star is usually not big, but has a very large mass, and can rank among the top in the star rankings.
The specific data of this Wolf-Laye star in Cygnus still needs further observation, but through the previous data of Wolf-Laye star, we can feel its horror.
WR102 is a Wolf-Laye star located in Sagittarius. Its surface temperature reaches 210,000K, an astonishing six-digit number. It has become one of the stars with the highest surface temperatures among known stars. 's 6000K is no longer enough to mention in front of it. The mass of
WR102 is equivalent to 17 suns, but its diameter is only half that of the sun, fully reflecting that "concentrated is the essence". Studying such stars will help us understand the evolution process of massive stars and also play an important role in the chemical evolution of host galaxies.
