Dust rings around distant stars: New images from the James Webb Space Telescope

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-10-13 02:00

Australia; New Zealand; International

Image credit: James Webb Space Telescope, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Upcoming images from the James Webb telescope described as "spectacular" will show dust rings radiating around stars in distant space. The stars get close enough for their stellar winds to collide, creating the dust rings. An international research team including Australian and New Zealand authors says that this dust may be an important source of chemical enrichment in the space between star systems.

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Research Springer Nature, Web page

Journal/
conference: Nature Astronomy

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Auckland, The University of Sydney

Funder: This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The data were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-03127 for JWST. These observations are associated with program ERS1349.Support for program ERS1349 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-03127.

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