NASA's Chandra telescope tells story of a runaway star about 440 light-years from Earth

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured a new look of a runaway star with a complicated past. Located about 440 light-years from Earth, Zeta Ophiuchi is a hot star that is 20 times more massive than the Sun.

In this new composite image shared by NASA, previously released infrared data from the agency's now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope reveals a spectacular shock wave (red and green) that was formed by matter blowing away from the star's surface and slamming into gas in its path. Data from Chandra shows a bubble of X-ray emission (blue) located around the star, produced by gas that has been heated by the effects of the shock wave to tens of millions of degrees.

🔭 @chandraxray is helping tell us the story of a runaway star.Zeta Ophiuchi is a star that was likely ejected from its birthplace by a powerful stellar explosion.Learn more HERE>> https://t.co/8VHQYEtYsp

— NASA Marshall (@NASA_Marshall) July 25, 2022

Astronomers, led by Samuel Green from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland, have constructed the first detailed computer models of the shock wave at different wavelengths, including X-ray, optical, infrared and radio observations. All three of the different computer models predict fainter X-ray emission than observed. The bubble of X-ray emission is brightest near the star while two of the three computer models predict the X-ray emission should be brighter near the shock wave.

The team now plans to test more complicated models with additional physics - including the effects of turbulence, and particle acceleration - to see whether the agreement with X-ray data will improve, NASA said in a news release on Monday.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. It has eight times greater resolution and is able to detect sources more than 20-times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope.