Dazzling Rings of Dust: James Webb Space Telescope Captures Unique Stellar Interaction

An extraordinary image captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveals a captivating phenomenon: a series of no less than 17 concentric rings made of dust, originating from a pair of stars situated approximately 5,300 light-years away from Earth. Each of these rings came into existence when the stars drew near to each other, resulting in their colliding stellar winds (streams of gas they emit into space) causing some of the gas to compress and form dust.

Referred to collectively as Wolf-Rayet 140, these stars possess elliptical orbits that bring them into close proximity roughly once every eight years. Analogous to the growth rings found in the trunk of a tree, these dusty loops represent the passage of time. Remarkably, these 17 rings provide insights into over a century of interactions between these stars. While other Wolf-Rayet stars also generate dust, the distinctive feature of Wolf-Rayet 140 lies in the creation of rings that is unparalleled in other star pairs.

Due to the elliptical nature of their orbits, the distance between these stars constantly changes, leading to dust formation only when they are in close proximity. The quantity of dust produced by this interaction fluctuates, preventing the formation of a perfectly symmetrical pattern. Notably, one of the most densely populated regions of dust creation results in the prominent bright feature that recurs at the 2 o'clock position.