LIKE A TARGET: WOLF-RAYET 140

Wolf-Rayet 140 offers an image that may be familiar to archers and snipers competing in the Olympics this week.

This target of the Webb telescope reveals at least 17 concentric dust rings emanating from a double star located 5,000 light-years from Earth. Before Webb turned its sensitive vision to this binary star system, ground-based telescopes had detected only two dust rings.

Each of these rings is the result of two stars coming close together, compressing gas and producing dust. The orbits of the stars bring them closer together about once every eight years.

Image description:

This Webb image shows a bright spot in the centre of star-filled black space. This bright spot is actually the meeting of two stars, because their orbits bring them together every 8 years. The pair of stars is surrounded by 17 rings of gas and dust that appear orangish-pink, like the rings of a tree trunk. The rings have a slightly rectangular shape and are very clear and distinct starting at about 1 o'clock clock clockwise. The rings begin to dissipate slightly as we move clockwise around the image. By the 8 o'clock position, only a fraction of the approximately six rings can be seen, which disappear from view.

It really does, doesn't it?