The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a rare and detailed image of a Wolf-Rayet star, providing valuable insight into the final act of a massive star’s life cycle. The star, WR 124, is located 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius and is shedding its outer layers, resulting in a halo of gas and dust. The telescope’s powerful infrared instruments reveal knotty structures and episodic ejections, offering astronomers an opportunity to study the formation of cosmic dust and its contribution to the universe’s overall “dust budget”. Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument provide unprecedented detail, allowing for investigations into dust production in environments like WR 124. The image also serves as an analogue to help astronomers understand the early history of the universe. Webb is a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency.
