James Webb Telescope Captures Rare Supernova Explosion of Dying Star
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a rare image of a star, WR 124, in the middle of a cloud of cosmic dust just before it goes supernova. The star, which is about 30 solar masses, is expelling its outer layers and has ejected more than 10 solar masses' worth of material. This is a rarely seen phenomenon in some stars' life cycle called the Wolf-Rayet (WR) phase. The gigantic star resides 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta. The cloud could survive the star's supernova collapse and contribute to the universe's "dust budget."