Spectacular cosmic pinwheel is a ‘ticking bomb’ set to blast gamma rays across the Milky Way

Eight thousand light-years away in a constellation called Norma, a spectacular spiral of gas and dust is churning around a doomed star system like we’ve never seen before.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Spectacular cosmic pinwheel is a ‘ticking bomb’ set to blast gamma rays across the Milky Way

Eight thousand light-years away in a constellation called Norma, a spectacular spiral of gas and dust is churning around a doomed star system like we’ve never seen before.

more…

> When we find a massive star in the Wolf-Rayet phase it is the very, very last stop before oblivion.

Well, actually second last. They change into a planetary nebula and only then go supernova. Most planetary nebulae don’t go supernova but those derived from Wolf-Reyets do. This is starting to develop a planetary nebula right now.

> leisurely 2 million kph.

I love it when scientists do that. Refer to two million kilometres per hour as “leisurely”.

> The astronomers believe the discrepancy could be explained by observations that show the most violent star is creating stellar winds at two speeds — fast at the poles, slow at the equator — a feature indicative of very fast-spinning stars. This star is spinning near critical — if it rotates any faster, the whole thing is going to break up.