Celestial bodies within the 'Serpent God of Destruction' system are observed to be aggressively expelling their searing cores, as per the James Webb Space Telescope's findings.
In the vast expanse of our Milky Way galaxy, approximately 8,000 light-years away, lies a remarkable stellar system known as Apep. Named after the ancient Egyptian serpent god of chaos and destruction due to its writhing pattern of shed dust, Apep has recently captured the attention of astronomers worldwide.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a groundbreaking instrument, has provided a more detailed image of Apep, revealing its complexity. The new image reveals that Apep contains not one, but two dying stars, both Wolf-Rayet stars, and a third massive companion star that interacts with their expelled material.
Wolf-Rayet stars are rare and highly evolved, massive stars in a late life stage. They have shed their outer hydrogen layers, leaving them to spew gusts of ionized helium, carbon, and nitrogen. This phase lasts only a few thousand years before the stars end their lives in supernova explosions.
The two Wolf-Rayet stars in Apep have near-equal strength winds, unfurling their innards into giant phantom jellyfish-like structures in the night sky. The radiation pressure from their light carves out a cavity in the dust, adding to the system's unusual characteristics.
Beyond the two Wolf-Rayet stars, Apep includes a third star—likely a supergiant—that is carving out a cavity in the dust. This discovery was surprising because earlier observations assumed Apep was a binary system. The dust in Apep is spread out in a wide cone and wrapped into a wind-sock shape, resembling a snake eating its own tail.
The dense carbon dust formed in systems like Apep is among the earliest carbon-rich material in space and contributes to the cosmic matter from which planets and life originate. Studying Apep helps scientists understand the final evolutionary stages of massive stars and the mechanisms of dust formation that seed the interstellar medium with essential elements.
The JWST has also uncovered three previously unknown dust shells around Apep, spaced at equal intervals and becoming colder and dimmer with distance from the stars. Such features add complexity to the understanding of mass loss and interactions in evolved massive star systems.
The findings about Apep are being studied to solve the mysteries of stellar death. The study of Apep could potentially lead to a better understanding of the scientific principles governing stellar death, offering critical insights into the life cycles of massive stars and the cosmic origins of dust and heavy elements.
The violence of stellar death in Apep creates puzzles that would have intrigued Newton and Archimedes. The findings, published in two preprint papers on July 19, 2023, mark a significant step forward in our understanding of the universe and its mysteries.
With the James Webb Space Telescope's exceptional clarity, we now know that Apep, thestellar system 8,000 light-years away, harbors not just a binary system, but a trio of stellar inhabitants – two dying Wolf-Rayet stars and a third massive star, each contributing to the system's intricacies.
Further investigation of Apep through technology like the JWST aims to solve the mysteries of stellar death, shedding light on the final stages of massive stars and the mechanisms of dust formation that seed the interstellar medium with essential elements for life, much like the dense carbon dust found in Apep.
