Unusually Chaotic Star Nears Its Violent End; Astronomers Get To Observe in Real-Time

While each star ages, astronomers rarely get the chance to observe such a process in real time. They are in for a treat as they witness an unusually chaotic star's aging.

Star Death

According to Space.com, the star, which the team has called BELLS 1, sits near the Triangulum galaxy. BELLS stands for Broad Emission-Lined Luminous Sources. The star, which has a mass of 25 suns, is currently transitioning to becoming a Wolf-Rayet star, which is a very unstable class of stars.

News.com.au notes that astronomers may witness the Wolf-Rayet star's journey to its violent and explosive end.

Fresh signals reveal that the BELLS 1 started beaming new signals that were not observed when the star was first seen in 2018. This new signal was picked up in the valleys and peaks within the spectra of the star. It shows that the star could be churning iron or carbon deep inside it via nuclear fusion.

The signal also shows that the huge star is closer to its explosive supernova climax.

Olivia Gaunt, a Tufts University graduate student who participated in the research, explains how interesting it is that they could observe actual spectrum changes within four years. Gaunt explains that this observation could be the first to focus on a Wolf-Rayet star in real time.

NASA notes that Wolf-Rayet stars have fast lives but end up dying hard. Hence, it is an extremely valuable and rare opportunity for astronomers to witness the evolution of one.

Space.com adds that there are only roughly 200 of these kinds of stars across the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers think that around one to two thousand, more could be present out there but blocked by thick dust blankets.

BELLS 1

This star could have started as a huge and hot star that quickly lost its reservoir of hydrogen by mixing heavier and lighter elements via nuclear fusion. The spectra that Gaunt's team picked up are due to the star's strong winds and mass shedding; in fact, BELLS 1 sheds the equivalent of 10 solar masses every few million years. This disregarded material gets pumped into the nearby universe, triggers future star formation, and enriches it with recycled elements.

The team first observed the star in 2018 at the Keck Observatory. When it was first spotted, the BELLS 1 had three emission lines. However, in 2022 follow-up observations, the star was seen to sport a new line. This hints that it moved forward in its energetic and short period of evolution.

Now, its 10-million-year life is nearing its end. More specifically, when the star's fuel runs out, it will blast into what is known as a Type 1 supernova.

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