Witness a massive star on the cusp of death spewing hot gas into space

This latest image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) features a luminous, hot star Wolf-Rayet 124 (WR 124) which is 30 times the mass of the Sun and lies 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

Wolf-Rayet stars are rare stars that are thought to be the progenitors of supernovae. Only a few massive stars go through a brief Wolf-Rayet phase before going supernova. They are among the most luminous, most massive, and most briefly detectable stars known.

Wolf-Rayet stars are known to be efficient producers of cosmic dust as they cast off their outer layers - WR 124 has shed 10 Suns' worth of material so far.

Using its powerful infrared instruments, Webb captured this rare sight of a blooming Wolf-Rayet star in June 2022. Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, or the NIRCam, balances the brightness of WR 124's stellar core and the knotty details in the fainter surrounding gas while its Mid-Infrared Instrument or MIRI reveals the clumpy structure of the gas and dust nebula of the ejected material now surrounding the star.

Cosmic spring is in the air! The latest image from @NASAWebb features a blooming Wolf-Rayet star, 15,000 light-years away. This rare phase is as fleeting as the cherry blossom it resembles. Luckily, Webb can study its "petals" of dust in detail: https://t.co/z9dlzgKmAh #SXSW pic.twitter.com/sAOrZkX0Wl

— NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2023

According to NASA, astronomers are highly interested in the origin of cosmic dust that can withstand a supernova explosion. This is because dust is a crucial component in the universe - it provides protection for nascent stars, facilitates the formation of planets, and acts as a foundation for the accumulation of molecules - including the fundamental building blocks of life on Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope has opened up new possibilities for studying details in cosmic dust and unravelling the mysteries that have long been concealed within it.