Today, tomorrow, learn English naturally. 天天自然学英语
The Webb Space Telescope has captured the rare and fleeting phase of a star on the cusp of death.
NASA released the picture Tuesday at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.
The observation was among the first made by Webb following its launch in late 2021. Its infrared eyes observed all the gas and dust flung into space by a huge, hot star 15,000 light-years away. A light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles.
Shimmering in purple like a cherry blossom, the cast-off material once comprised the star’s outer layer. The Hubble Space Telescope snapped a shot of the same transitioning star a few decades ago, but it appeared more like a fireball without the delicate details.
Such a transformation occurs only with some stars and normally is the last step before they explode, going supernova, according to scientists.
“We’ve never seen it like that before. It’s really exciting,” said Macarena Garcia Marin, a European Space Agency scientist who is part of the project.
This star in the constellation Sagitta, officially known as WR 124, is 30 times as massive as our sun and already has shed enough material to account for 10 suns, according to NASA.
This story was first published on March 14, 2023. It was updated on March 15, 2023, to correct the location of the star to the constellation Sagitta, not Sagittarius
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group.
注释：
cusp: n
1. 表示"尖端"，means "small elevation on the grinding surface of a tooth；advanced"，如：We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning.我们正处于全球教与学变革尖端。
2. 表示"交点"，means "point formed by two intersecting arcs"，如：We are just on the cusp between autumn and winter. 此时正是秋冬之交。
fleeting: adj
表示"短暂的"，means "lasting for a markedly brief time"，如：The prime of life is that fleeting time between green and overripe.人生盛年是处于青涩和过熟之间的短暂时光。
fling: v
表示"投"，means "throw violently or with force"，如：Boys like to fling stones into water.男孩子们喜欢向水中投石子。
supernova: n
表示" [天]超新星"，means "a star that explodes and becomes extremely luminous in the process"，如：This image shows the entire region around the supernova. 这张图像显示了超新星周围的整个区域。
constellation: n
表示" 星座"，means "a configuration of stars as seen from the earth"，如：A constellation is a stellar system. 一个星座就是一个恒星星系。
Sagitta: n
表示"天箭星座"，means "a small constellation in the northern hemisphere between Cygnus and Aquila and crossed by the Milky Way"，如：A constellation in the celestial Northern Hemisphere near Cygnus and Sagitta. 狐狸星座北天球天鹅星座和天箭星座附近的一个星座
Sagittarius: n
表示" 射手座"，means "a large zodiacal constellation in the southern hemisphere; between Scorpius and Capricornus"，如：The constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius lie in this direction as well.人马座和天蝎座也在这个位置。
中文简要说明：
韦伯太空望远镜再度捕捉到罕见的宇宙影像！美国太空总署（NASA）3月14日发布WR 124恒星的「垂死」画面，恒星的外层被弹射到太空中四散开来，宛如一朵闪耀紫金色光芒的樱花绽放，让科学家大为惊叹。
根据美联社、太空信息网站「Space.com」报导，沃夫-雷耶（Wolf-Rayet star）恒星「WR 124」位于人马座，距离地球大约1万5千光年，质量估计有太阳的30倍之多。韦伯太空望远镜于去年6月拍下它的照片，可以看到在变成超新星（supernova）爆炸之前，WR 124喷出一团团光亮的气体，形成星云。
NASA官员表示，WR 124喷出的星云质量，已经超过太阳的10倍。「宇宙尘埃十分重要，它能保护正在发展的恒星，聚集在一起形成行星，也能充当分子形成和聚集的平台——例如地球生命的起源，」NASA表示。「尽管如此，还有很多尘埃超出天文学家目前所能理解的范围。」
事实上，这并不是NASA首次针对WR 124恒星进行观察。几十年前，哈伯望远镜也曾摄下这颗恒星的照片，当时看起来就像是一颗缺乏细节的火球。
而耗资100亿美元打造的韦伯望远镜，主要观测的波段为红外光，比哈伯望远镜更广，预期将协助科学家解开更多关于宇宙尘埃的谜底。
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