The close-up shows a dying star outside our own galaxy

European the southern observatory has released a rare image. It is the first close-up view of a slowly dying star outside our own galaxy.

The depicted star is 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is one of the closest neighbors of the Milky Way.

The depicted star WOH G64 has been known for decades. It was known to be a giant, with a radius perhaps 2,000 times that of the Sun, although estimates vary greatly. In terms of mass, it originally corresponded to at least 25 Suns.

It is classified as a red supergiant. It is the largest and brightest star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, says the professor of astronomy and astrophysics Edward Guina’s news channel CNNfor. Guinan, a researcher at Villanova University in the United States, was not involved in the study.

If the giant were at the location of the Sun, its edge would extend beyond Jupiter’s orbit.

Astronomers have produced similar close-ups of some stars in our own galaxy. However, it has been extremely difficult to capture the stars of neighboring galaxies in images that show details.

In the latest image, the star is spewing gas and dust as it appears to be on its way to its end. It is becoming a supernova right now, estimates the first author of the study that produced the image Keiichi Ohnaka in the bulletin. Astrophysicist Bello works in Chile at Andrés Bello University.

The star has changed significantly in ten years, as it seems to have dimmed. Although a star may be exploding, it may take thousands of years to eventually go supernova. When it explodes, it can be seen even on Earth with the naked eye, Guinan states.

For the sake of described by ESO’s large System of VLT telescopes (Very Large Telescope). It consists of four huge telescopes, whose main mirrors are over eight meters in diameter.

The telescopes can work together as the VLT Interferometer, which is like one even bigger telescope. It allows astronomers to observe 25 times finer details than with individual telescopes.

The study was published on Friday Astronomy and Astrophysics in the journal.

Correction November 22 at 2:45 p.m.: Added the word “radius” to the sentence where the size of the star is compared to the Sun.

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