A new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope shows rings of dust plumes created by the violent interactions between two stars
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The image is part of new research that reveals how intense starlight can push matter around in space by focusing on a double-star system located 5,000 light-years away from Earth in the Cygnus constellation.
The team’s observations revealed that the dust plumes form where the stellar winds from both of the giant stars collide, creating a cone-shaped shock front between the stars. As the stars go through their oval-shaped orbit, the shock front also moves, which causes the smoke-like dust plume to spiral. If the stars had a circular orbit, it would form a pinwheel pattern. Instead, the oval-shaped orbit creates delays in dust production that cause the dust plumes to resemble rings or shells.
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