Great Balls of Fire! Hubble Sees Bright Knots Ejected from Brilliant Star
Depicts: WR124, M1-67, IRAS 19092+1646
Copyright: Yves Grosdidier (University of Montreal and Observatoire de Strasbourg), Anthony Moffat (Universitie de Montreal), Gilles Joncas(Universite Laval), Agnes Acker (Observatoire de Strasbourg), and NASA
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The massive, hot central star is known as a Wolf-Rayet star. This extremely
rare and short-lived class of super-hot star is going through a violent, transitional
phase characterized by the fierce ejection of mass. The blobs may result from
the furious stellar wind that does not flow smoothly into space but has instabilities
which make it clumpy.
This black and white image was made in the light of atomic hydrogen. The contrast
has been increased to emphasize the fine detail in the nebula near the central
star.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
