Wolf-Rayet 124
Model: gpt-4.1
Prompt version: 1.0
Driven by powerful stellar winds, expanding shrouds of gas and cosmic dust frame hot, luminous star Wolf-Rayet 124 in this sharp infrared astronomy view.
The eye-catching 6-spike star pattern is characteristic of stellar images made with the 18 hexagonal mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope.
About 15,000 light-years distant toward the pointed northern constellation Sagitta, Wolf-Rayet 124 has over 30 times the mass of the Sun. Produced in a brief and rarely spotted phase of massive star evolution in the Milky Way, this star’s turbulent nebula is nearly 6 light-years across.
It heralds Wolf-Rayet 124’s impending stellar death in a supernova explosion. Formed in the expanding nebula, dusty interstellar debris that survives the supernova will influence the formation of future generations of stars.