James Webb telescope captures 'fingerprint' in deep space

NASA published new photo taken by "James Webb". It clearly shows rings of dust between a pair of stars, giving the illusion of a fingerprint.

The picture shows a star system at a distance of 5,300 light years from Earth. The duo of stars is known as Wolf-Rayet 140 (or WR140), and each ring surrounding the system formed when two stars passed close together. When this happens, their stellar winds meet, compressing the gases that both stars are throwing into space and turning them into dust.

Age can be calculated from these rings, as if from a cut of a tree: one ring is one meeting of stars, which occurs once every 8 years. There are at least 17 rings in the image, or more than 130 years of regular encounters of these stars.

In the photo - young star of spectral class OThey are characterized by high surface temperature and blue color. and old Wolf-Rayet starMassive stars that are usually in the late stages of evolution. They are distinguished by a very high temperature and luminosity, they eject heavy elements into interstellar matter.

. It's hard to see them in the picture, but here's what they look like in the reconstruction of the NASA illustrator (our Sun for scale):

Scientists have not yet figured out what elements this dust is made of and what allows it to retain its original shape for so long, but they hope to find out in the future thanks to "James Webb".