Science and Tech

A spider web in the sky?

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What this image shows could pass for a spider web photographed at night with the starry sky behind. However, it is a structure around a pair of stars called Wolf-Rayet 140 and located just over 5,000 light-years from Earth. Every time the stars in this binary system reach the point in their orbit where the distance between them is the minimum, their stellar winds interact and alter the material in that sector of space, compressing it into the shape of a ring. That closest approach between the two stars occurs approximately once every eight years. Older rings are no longer visible, but there are enough newer rings to give the structure this unique spiderweb-like appearance. The spectacular photo has been taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, of NASA, ESA and CSA, space agencies of the United States, Europe and Canada, respectively. (Font: NCYT by Amazings)

(Photo: NASA JPL / ESA / CSA / STScl / Caltech)

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