Jump to content

File:WR 31a.jpg

Page contents not supported in other languages.
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Original file (1,956 × 1,887 pixels, file size: 1.42 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Summary

Description
English: Sparkling at the centre of this beautiful NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a Wolf–Rayet star known as WR 31a, located about 30 000 light-years away in the constellation of Carina (The Keel).

The distinctive blue bubble appearing to encircle WR 31a, and its uncatalogued stellar sidekick, is a Wolf–Rayet nebula — an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, helium and other gases. Created when speedy stellar winds interact with the outer layers of hydrogen ejected by Wolf–Rayet stars, these nebulae are frequently ring-shaped or spherical. The bubble — estimated to have formed around 20 000 years ago — is expanding at a rate of around 220 000 kilometres per hour!

Unfortunately, the lifecycle of a Wolf–Rayet star is only a few hundred thousand years — the blink of an eye in cosmic terms. Despite beginning life with a mass at least 20 times that of the Sun, Wolf–Rayet stars typically lose half their mass in less than 100 000 years. And WR 31a is no exception to this case. It will, therefore, eventually end its life as a spectacular supernova, and the stellar material expelled from its explosion will later nourish a new generation of stars and planets.
Date
Source https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1608a/
Author ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
Permission
(Reusing this file)
https://www.spacetelescope.org/copyright/

Licensing

w:en:Creative Commons
attribution share alike
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

22 February 2016

image/jpeg

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current22:26, 21 July 2019Thumbnail for version as of 22:26, 21 July 20191,956 × 1,887 (1.42 MB)BevinKaconactual size from original source
19:21, 4 April 2017Thumbnail for version as of 19:21, 4 April 20172,048 × 1,536 (1.31 MB)Ruslik0High resolution version
05:31, 14 November 2016Thumbnail for version as of 05:31, 14 November 2016684 × 660 (91 KB)Astralex4791User created page with UploadWizard

The following 3 pages use this file:

Global file usage

The following other wikis use this file:

Metadata