\n<\/p>\n
This NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s mid-infrared image shows four coiled shells of dust around a pair of Wolf-Rayet stars known as Apep for the first time. Previous observations by other telescopes showed only one.<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s data, combined with observations from the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, confirmed that the two Wolf-Rayet stars sail past one another approximately every 190 years. Over each orbit, they make a close pass for 25 years, producing and spewing amorphous carbon dust.<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s new data also confirmed that there are three stars gravitationally bound to one another in this system. Holes are \u201csliced\u201d into these shells by the third star, a massive supergiant.<\/p>\n
Learn more about this result\u00a0here.<\/p>\n
[Image description<\/i>: Four dust shells in Wolf-Rayet Apep expand away from three central stars that appear as a single pinpoint of light. The shells are curved, and the interior shell looks like a backward lowercase e shape.]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n