The new image, obtained by the James Webb telescope, shows 17 concentric dust rings coming from a pair of stars called the Wolf-Ray star 140 . The Spectrometer of the telescope identified the composition of the rings that are formed every eight years as the components of the space duet converge.
The Wolfe-Raye star is a type of star that has very high temperatures and luminance. Its mass is at least 25 times the mass of the Sun and it tends to be near the end of its life, contains little hydrogen, but is rich in helium and emits a strong star wind. Most of these types of stars occur in double systems.
The WR 140 system is located 5,000 light years from Earth, and scientists estimate that the star pair lost more than half of its original mass in the formation of the star wind.
Using spectroscopy data from one of the instruments of the space telescope, scientists have shown that dust rings contain large amounts of carbon-rich molecules, and researchers have also found that dust particles can remain in a hostile environment between stars, forming material for future stars and planets.
It's only possible to turn gas into dust under certain conditions that scientists explain. Hydrogen, the easiest and most common element in stars and wind, can't produce dust by itself. But since Wolf's stars -- Paradise lose so much mass, they also throw out more sophisticated elements that are usually deep inside the star, including carbon. Heavy elements in the wind cool when they travel into space and then compress where the winds come from both stars.