this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2025
274 points (98.2% liked)

science

15211 readers
1128 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

NEW JWST IMAGE shows SEVENTEEN carbon dust shells around a binary star system

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] #space #science #nasa #astronomy

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 66 points 2 days ago (4 children)

What's a carbon dust shell and why's that cool?

[–] [email protected] 65 points 2 days ago (3 children)

@[email protected] A carbon dust shell is a layer of carbon-rich material expelled from a star in it's later stages of life in which a star ejects these shells due to stellar instability since they are the lighter, outer elements of a star.

It's cool because JWST could even resolve detail like that!! We can also learn more about the carbon chemistry of the system, binary dynamics, and the history of the system :D

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Ooh, I guess it can discern surface of close stars as well? Like, the betelgeuse image but in better resolution.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

It can resolve that, but can't see the secret Nazi bases on the moon? Must be fake.

(I'm joking - this is awesome)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago

Carbon is pretty important for earth, and it's unclear how we have so much of it. Dual star systems shooting out carbon at 1% the speed of light kind of explains it pretty well: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-watches-carbon-rich-dust-shells-form-expand-in-star-system/

[–] TheFunkyMonk 13 points 2 days ago

The JWST website has some more information!