Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140 (MIRI Images, annotated)

Compare the two mid-infrared images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope of Wolf-Rayet 140, a system of dust shells ejected by two massive stars that are in an elongated orbit.

Look to the top right of the first two images. Two triangles are matched up to show how much difference 14 months makes: the dust is racing away from the central stars at almost 1% the speed of light and no longer lines up in the third image.

When the winds of the massive stars, which are buried within the white central region in the first and second images, collide and that material compresses, it forms carbon-rich dust that moves away from the stars. This occurs for a few months during each eight-year orbit, which is one reason why the dust isn’t ‘sprayed’ equally around the stars to form complete shells.

Wolf-Rayet 140 lies just over 5000 light-years away in our Milky Way galaxy.

[Image description: A three-part graphic showing observations of Wolf-Rayet 140, two massive stars with 17 dust shells around them. An inset appears at right, showing a portion of the two observations matched up to show that the arced dust has moved.]