Astronomers have achieved the first high-quality image of a dying star outside of our own galaxy.
A European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope has taken an image of the star 160,000 light years from Earth.
Universidad Andrés Bello astrophysicist Keiichi Ohnaka said the image showed the star “puffing out” gas and dust before it became a supernova.
“We discovered an egg-shaped cocoon closely surrounding the star,” Dr Ohnaka said.
“We are excited because this may be related to the drastic ejection of material from the dying star before a supernova explosion.”
Astronomers have previously taken about two dozen zoomed-in images of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, but this is the first time a zoomed-in image has been achieved from another galaxy.
“The newly imaged star, WOH G64, lies within the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the small galaxies that orbits the Milky Way,” the ESO said in a statement.
“Astronomers have known about this star for decades and have appropriately dubbed it the ‘behemoth star’. With a size roughly 2000 times that of our Sun, WOH G64 is classified as a red supergiant.”
While astronomers have been studying the star for more than 20 years, they could not achieve a picture of it until the recent development of stronger instruments.
