Phenomena on a cosmic scale can be rapid, as the James Webb Telescope showed when observing the binary Wolf-Rayet star system WR 140. Webb observed this system at intervals of about 14 months and recorded significant changes in such a short period of time by the standards of the Universe. The WR 140 system forms diverging concentric waves of stardust at its center, which fly away literally before the eyes of scientists.
Image source: NASA
Wolf-Rayet stars are considered stardust factories because they have the most powerful stellar winds. This is especially important because they emit carbon from their depths, an element that is one of the key attributes of biological life. Such stars are surrounded by a dust shell, and if it is a binary system, like WR 140, then during the orbital motion of a pair of stars, dust disturbances create an incredible picture.
Comparison of images of the propagation of dust waves with an interval of about 14 months
The central star comes closest to its partner exactly once every 7.93 years. At this moment, the stellar winds from both stars collide most intensely, giving rise to an interference pattern of diverging waves in the dust cloud. The waves travel at a speed of 2600 km/s, which is about 1% of the speed of light. Webb took the first photo in 2022, and the second one less than 14 months later. Comparison of images demonstrates that phenomena of cosmic proportions can occur in periods of time commensurate with human activity.
The diverging rings are only the visible part of the changes in a continuous cloud of dust. There is much more matter around stars, including carbon atoms, than a space telescope can image. The WR 140 system has been studied so well that the distribution of dust in its vicinity can be observed as if it were a natural astrophysical laboratory, literally with a chronometer in hand, studying the dynamics of the behavior of matter and the physics of processes.
If our Sun could emit such waves of dust, the distance between the nearest waves would be approximately equal to 5% of the distance between our star and Alpha Centauri, the Sun’s closest neighbor. This is a beautiful and interesting phenomenon that the James Webb telescope will undoubtedly help study in the future.