(ORDO NEWS) — The image attached to the article shows a pulsating red giant known as R Sculptor (R Sculptoris).
This red giant, 1,200 light-years from Earth, is a carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch star.
In other words, the atmosphere of the red giant R Sculptor, which has reached the end of its evolutionary path, contains more carbon than oxygen.
At this stage, Sculptor’s R rapidly cools down, “swells up” and loses most of its mass – the red giant is one step away from forming (without exploding) a colorful planetary nebula.
Notice the dominant bright spot (right of center) which is about three times brighter than the rest of the area.
Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope (VLTI) interferometer to capture this remarkable image have found that the red giant is surrounded by a giant shell of stellar dust that “flakes off” as the object expands.
That is, the bright spot is actually an area that is blocked by less dust.
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