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    Wolf-Rayet stars tagged posts

    ‘Born-again’ star offers rare chance to watch stellar evolution in real time

    September 17, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    'Born-again' star offers rare chance to watch stellar evolution in real time
    The rapid brightening of Sakurai’s object (green circle) allows astronomers to study the final phases of the stellar evolution in only a few decades. The left and right panels show the brightening. The middle panel is an image obtained with the radio telescope ALMA, showing the material ejected after the star re-ignited. The material currently extends over a size similar to our entire solar system. Credit: Stefan Kimeswenger, University of Innsbruck; Peter van Hoof, Royal Observatory Belgium.

    Astronomers have confirmed that one of the fastest-changing stars ever observed has entered a new stage of its evolution, offering a rare opportunity to watch a star’s life unfold on human timescales.

    Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, researchers inc...

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    Astronomer detected new source of intense Gamma-Radiation

    February 18, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is an artist's impression of the clash of powerful stellar winds. Credit: NASA/C. Reed

    This is an artist’s impression of the clash of powerful stellar winds. Credit: NASA/C. Reed

    The new source confirmed that binary systems with strong colliding stellar winds comprise a separate new population of high-energy gamma-ray sources. Massive binary star systems with highly luminous and hot Wolf-Rayet stars and massive (tens solar masses) OB companion generate strong stellar winds. Its percussion may lead to producing a fierce photon flux with an energetic potential of >100 MEV, when a distance separating stars is relatively short. That phenomenon was considered a possible source of gamma-radiation for a long while.

    Though such radiation was detected only once, with the famous Eta Carinae when one of its stars underwebt an explosion and for some time was the most luminous star in th...

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