NASA released the image at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.
This observation was the first of its kind made by the Webb telescope after its launch in late 2021.
Infrared “eyes” have detected all the gas and dust blasted into space by a hot, massive star 15,000 light-years away. A light year is about 9.46 trillion km.
Glowing purple, the material the star expelled once formed its outer layer.
The Hubble Space Telescope took an image of the same transition star a few decades ago, though it looked more like a fireball with no fine detail.
Transformation only happens with some stars and is usually the last step before they explode into a supernova, according to scientists.
“We’ve never seen her like this before. It’s really excitingMacarena García Marín, a scientist with the European Space Agency who is involved in the project, said.
Officially known as WR 124, this star in the constellation Sagittarius is 30 times the mass of our sun and has already emitted enough material for the equivalent of 10 suns, according to NASA.
James Webb, the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space, is a $10 billion project and named after a former NASA administrator, after it was sent into space on a European-built rocket in December. It is located in orbit 1.5 million km from Earth.
Together with James Webb, astronomers hope to obtain more data about the beginnings of the universe, including the birth of the first galaxies and stars, but also about the formation of planets.
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