This infrared portrait is from the WISE spacecraft. It is a photo of the runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi which produces the arching interstellar bow wave or bow stock. It is about 20 times more massive than the Sun and it lies near the center of the frame, moving toward the top at 24 kilometers per second. It has a strong stellar wind that precedes it, compressing and heating the dust interstellar material and shaping the curved shock front. Relatively undisturbed clouds of material lie around it. Zeta Oph is though to have been a member of a binary star system at one time, and its companion star was more massive and shorter lived. When the other star exploded as a supernova (losing mass), Zeta Oph was flung out of the system. About 460 light-years away, Zeta Oph is 65,000 times more luminous than the SUn and would be one of the brighter stars in the sky if it werent surrounded by dust.
No comments:
Post a Comment